Apple's iPhone has inspired almost every phone maker to design touch-screen phones. Earlier this week there was the introduction of T-Mobile's G1 touch screen. The one lone holdout has been Nokia, the world's top cell phone maker. Next week the phone giant will succumb to touch-screen peer pressure and launch the "Tube," according to the Reuters news agency.
The Nokia touch-screen Tube will reportedly surface at a media event in London on October 2. Early pictures of the phone appeared on the IDNES.cz website. A ZDNet blog chimed in with some rumored Tube features such as GPS, Wi-Fi, an SD card slot, and a 640 x 360 touch-screen. The phone will run on the standard Symbian S60, according to reports.
Unless Nokia announces something completely unexpected for its first touch-screen, the phone is likely to be overshadowed by the recently released Android phone, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. After all, a slightly reduced price tag might be all it needs to attract the average cell phone customer who is interested in the iPhone, but still finds it a bit out of their price range.
