MeeGo-Powered Nokia N9 to Be Called Nokia N950

According to a film company, which tweeted that it is working on a film promo with Nokia on a MeeGo-powered N950, the oft-rumored Nokia N9 may be launched as the Nokia N950 smartphone this summer. Film company Arguelles tweeted, “This week #Arguelles began filming #Nokia spot in @ArguellesPics. For the new ‘Nokia N950′ touch screen 4G smartphone releasing this summer.”

The tweet mentions that the N950 is a touchscreen smartphone, making no reference to the keyboard design that was a hallmark of past rumors surrounding Nokia’s first MeeGo smartphone. The initial rumors suggest that the Nokia N9, or Nokia N950 according to Arguelles, would sport a landscape-oriented keyboard mechanism with a sliding/tilting screen, but since then there were rumors that the hardware wasn’t right and that Nokia may have eliminated the Nokia E7 Communicator-styled keyboard for the final model. If true, then the Arguelles message on Twitter would confirm that with no mention of a keyboard in describing the 4G touchscreen smartphone.

The device is now at the FCC awaiting U.S. regulatory approval. The phone is expected for a summer launch and earlier leaks from a tipster suggests that Nokia may debut the phone to developers first in June, followed by a commercial release.

The last developer-centric smartphone released by Nokia was the Nokia N900, which ran the Maemo 5 operating system. The device offers more power than Symbian^3 and was promoted as being more open than Android. However, after Maemo, Nokia decided to roll that operating system together with Intel’s Moblin OS in the hopes of creating momentum behind the co-developed MeeGo.

The company has since switched strategy again since new CEO Stephen Elop took reigns. Nokia had announced a few months ago that it would choose instead to focus on developing for Windows Phone 7 and wind down Symbian development while evaluating the prospect behind MeeGo.