Nokia begins shipping its flagship N8 smartphone

Nokia announced today that it’s begun shipping its N8 smartphone to retail stores and customers who have pre-ordered the device.

The news follows an announcement from the company last week that it had to delay shipments of the N8 to take care of a software issue. Nokia initially planned to ship the devices in late September, so with the news today it has technically lived up to its promise.

Nokia first announced its Facebook-friendly N8 camera in April. At the time, it was notable for its powerful 12-megapixel camera, 720p high-definition video recording capabilities, as well as the fact that it was running Nokia’s new Symbian^3 operating system. Since then, the iPhone 4, and high-end Android phones like the Evo 4G and Droid X, have been released — making Nokia’s new high-end darling less appealing for anything but hardcore Nokia fans.

As I’ve written previously, the N8 will be Nokia’s flagship device until its more ambitious Meego platform — a joint open-source operating system developed in conjunction with Intel — launches, starting with its N9 phone. But it’s going to be some time before Meego devices are released. For now, Nokia’s Symbian^3 devices — which also include the E7, C6, and C7 phones — are the closest the company comes to competing with iPhone/Android phones.

Getting content noticed is a challenge for everyone making apps. Join us at DiscoveryBeat 2010 and hear secrets from top industry executives about how to break through and profit in the new cross-platform app ecosystem. From metrics to monetization, we’ll take an in depth look at the best discovery strategies and why they’re working. The conference takes place on October 18th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Sponsors can contact us at sponsors@venturebeat.com. To buy tickets, click here.