After 30 minutes of listening to hypnotizing jungle trance music the Nokia World live webcast finally started and Nokia execs took the stage. In the webcast chatroom, where several bloggers had gathered to chat, the news had already broken that the Nokia N97 was the main prize to be announced at Nokia World.

We’re guessing that information was included in the Press Package for folks on-site (Barcelona, Spain) and quickly found its way to the web. But before the gem of the day would be officially announced, we would have to endure a decidedly boring speech about other initiatives that Nokia wants to make sure you at least hear, if not remember, namely their mapping experience.

To humor them, we’ll tell you that Nokia has some new social features that provide location based information about you and your friends/family. Point your phone towards a landmark and your Nokia will be able to tell you information about the landmark with the example being a historic building showing architect, history and significance. And Nokia maps sees some improvements that, to be honest, are pretty cool… including knowing the speed limits on roads which you’re driving and some other neat tricks.

And then Nokia’s website dropped a bunch of the Press Releases that let the cat out of the bag. Couldn’t they hold their trigger finger steady for 20 more minutes?

• Nokia Announces N97
• N97 Ushers In Some New Nokia Capabilities
• Nokia Maps Improves with Ovi By Nokia Upgrades
• Nokia Messaging And Mail on Ovi

Pretty irritating how they need 4 different Press Releases when the information overlaps in so many different areas. I guess if your PR people are on salary/retainer, you might as well get the biggest bang for your buck!

The live web stream is still going, another Finnish gentlemen with a thick accent has taken the stage and I almost forget if they’ve announced the N97 at the event or not. Afterall its a done deal… the Press Release is already out. Nonetheless, he continues a dramatic monologue about the future of mobile from the N95 of two years ago today. He is actually a quite dynamic, engaging speaker who seems like he is Nokia’s Braveheart preparing fot he Mobile War. He leads up to… none other than… drum roll…

Oh yeah, you already knew: The Nokia N97

But wait a minute. He just said 64GB. Did he really? Sixty-Four? The press release shows 32GB Internal Memory and 16GB of expandable memory via microSD for a total of 48GB. So… one them has to be wrong. We’re guessing he simply misspoke.

Some specs you might like to know about:

• $550 Euros (unsubsidized cost)
• Available 1st Half 2009
• 48GB of memory (32 internal, 16 external)
• Full QWERTY Keyboard
• Keyboard slides open and also swivels up at 35 degree angle and clicks into place
• Video recording supporting 30fps
• QVGA Screen supporting 16 Million colors with 16:9 Aspect Ratio

They then went into Q&A and the webcast faded out. So what we’re left with is a pretty sweet device that looks to have a ton of power at an affordable price – especially if the carriers subsidize it. And they’ll fight over who gets to subsidize this thing.

Here are some screen caps I grabbed of the webcast:

Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until the 1st Half of 2009 to get this thing which means we could potentially have to wait until JUNE! I’m sure we’ll get some more specific time frame details leaking out soon enough.

All-in-all a pretty good showing for Nokia and this is definitely a device that will stand up their with the iPhone and G1 if the Symbian Foundation and Symbian Developers step up to the plate like they’ve claimed they will.