Neonode ships N2 touchscreen phone

Neonode on Monday began delivering the N2, its long-awaited touchscreen phone. The device controversially positioned as an iPhone rival by the company is now set to be distributed throughout the southeastern portion of Europe by MyPhone and will be usable with carriers such as Vodafone and Wind. Though pushed back from the initial spring release, the device should feature the same, customized Neno touchscreen interface on a 2-inch display as well as a 2-megapixel camera, MP3/WAV/WMA playback, and a program that can record Internet radio on a PC for sideloading to the N2's miniSD storage.

The cost of the phone is unknown and may depend on subsidies from local carriers, but Neonode expects its southeastern European launch to finish this summer and is in the later stages of deals with carriers that would bring the device to the rest of Europe. Releases in "other major markets" are also close, the company says, though the company has not confirmed a North American release despite using a world-friendly quad-band GSM radio.