Nokia Touch UI phone code-named Tube

Update: Images of the Nokia Tube device already leaked online. In case you are interested (and we know you are) you can jump to our coverage here.

Word is that Nokia are finally preparing their own full Touch UI handset - codenamed "Tube". An image of the new handset was shown in a presentation slide at an event held in California yesterday. While we don't have the slide in question, we do know the Nokia Tube handset looks a lot like the Apple iPhone.

The Nokia Tube will be the first Touch UI device by Nokia and while Nokia officials are still not getting into details such as OS or shipping date, we are pretty much sure we are talking Symbian Touch UI here.

It would be a hard competition, since all sorts of rumors predict that Apple will be announcing a whole new 3G version of their over-hyped iPhone within 2 months and they will be releasing it within September.

Since the launch of iPhone in June 2007, Apple has shipped 6 million devices (actually being closer to 4 millions), but that doesn't put them anywhere near to being a major Nokia competitor, Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia said. "We've done that volume since we've had dinner on Friday," he shared.

Comments like that however only show the frustration of Nokia at the Apple's success - be it minor in volumes when compared to the millions of low-end handsets Nokia sells everyday. There is no place for dispute that Apple have achieved enormous success with their first and only handset - they've changed the structure of the American market for mobile phones beyond recognition and managed to create an unprecedented hype that made the iPhone popular world-wide even before it set foot outside American soil.

We haven't heard much of Nokia Touch UI interface since its announcement back in October 2007. While we did see a live demo at the MWC 2008 held in Barcelona, it was nothing close to a real device, but instead a computer emulation with a touchscreen. Have a look at the video in question: