Nokia launched its latest flagship model, the N97, at the Peninsula Manila Hotel in Makati City on June 26, 2009.  The smartphone has a 32- gigabyte internal memory, that is expandable to 48 gigabytes. N97 would be sold at P35,000 in the Philippines.

William Hamilton-Whyte, general manager of Nokia Philippines said, he has good expectations for N97, which everyone seemingly wants to have. He said N97 will help drive growth of cellphone sales in the country, bucking the downtrend in the global market.
 
"The global phone market was down 10 percent this year.  In the Philippines, I have not seen any slowdown," Mr. Whyte said, although he did not cite any specific growth figure.  Nokia, he said, accounts for more than 50 percent of total mobile phone sales in the Philippines, which he described as a dynamic market.
 
However, Whyte said that because of the global economic downturn, mobile phone users in the Philippines may change their handsets less often. "Before it was 24 months before they change phones.  But because of the global crisis, it would be longer at maybe 30 months," he said.

 
"The Philippines is going to become no. 1 in Asia. in terms of mobile email in three years.  It is on track towards that goal.  It is already now in the top five in the world in mobile email," Whyte said.
He said the mobile phone industry is changing past, because consumer needs are changing and the landscape is evolving.
 
"Mobile telecom and personal computers converge.  Mobile phone manufacturers come out with mobile phones that look like personal computers while computer manufacturers come out with computers that look like mobile phones," he said.
 
Whyte said an example of this merger of technologies is Nokia's latest product, the N97.  "Electronic devices are getting smaller and more powerful," he said.