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Nokia kicked off its Nokia World 08 show in Barcelona today by throwing the kitchen sink at Apple's iPhone in the form of the N97, a communicator that combines a QWERTY keyboard with a 3.5-inch touch screen and an emphasis on social networking -- but which won't ship until sometime in the first half of 2009, at an estimated retail price of 550 euros ($700 as of today).

Billed by the Finnish phone giant as "the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," the 5.3-ounce device features a tap- and swipe-able home screen that can be personalized with widgets of favorite Web services and full-screen applications.

The N97's 16:9-aspect-ratio (640 by 360) display can play 30-fps MPEG-4/H.264, Windows Media, RealVideo, and Flash videos, while digital music fans can enjoy up to 37 hours of (offline) playback of Nokia Music Store and other tunes.

An electronic compass and A-GPS receiver provide not only the usual car and foot navigation but real-time "social location," letting friends share their whereabouts as well as related pictures and videos.

The 4.6 by 2.2 by 0.6-inch case holds up to 48GB of storage (32GB onboard plus a 16GB microSD card); a 5-megapixel camera; 802.11b/g WiFi; Bluetooth; a 35mm headphone jack; and TV-out support. Nokia promises up to 320 minutes of talk time and 400 hours of standby time on 3G networks (a bit more on GSM).

Nokia also took the opportunity of the Barcelona show to announce Nokia Messaging, a service to be included with participating carriers' data plans that will give Nokia devices access to a wide variety of consumer e-mail and instant messaging platforms such as Gmail, Google Talk, Yahoo Mail and Messenger, Windows Live Hotmail, and ISP e-mail accounts.

The company also plans to add Web access to its Mail on Ovi accounts and introduce a free Maps on Ovi service that will let users pre-plan trips and save favorite places on a home PC, then access and share them from a mobile.

Finally, Nokia announced that it has completed its acquisition of Symbian Limited, moving closer to the planned launch of the Symbian Foundation -- a joint effort with AT&T, Vodafone, NTT, Motorola, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and other firms that aims to create a unified software platform for royalty-free release in 2009 and open-source availability in 2010.