New N-Gage Delayed Until December

Nokia's revived N-Gage mobile platform is being delayed until December as a result of software testing delays.

In development since 2005, the new N-Gage was first unveiled in August, at which time the company said it would be available globally in November. "N-Gage is coming in December," Nokia's Kari Tutti said of the delay. "Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected. We are talking about a couple of weeks."

Unlike Nokia's original N-Gage handset which was released in 2003 and failed to take hold with gamers or mobile phone users, the new N-Gage is instead a gaming service that will work across Nokia's entire current range of handsets. The service is aimed primarily at casual and multiplayer games, with services designed to let users know when their friends are online and what games are installed on their phones as well as matchmaking services to help gamers find opponents of comparable skill levels.

Finland-based Nokia is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile handsets, currently holding 39 percent of the global market share. The company also produces equipment for other segments of the global telecommunications market, including broadband internet, VoIP and wireless LAN hardware.