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Nokia N900 available on Vodafone from January

From January, the Nokia N900 Maemo Linux smartphone will be available on the Vodafone network, it's been confirmed. Marking the mobile phone giant's move away from its standard Symbian operating system, the N900 is already available SIM-free through Nokia's online stores.

Smartphone fans interested in owning the Maemo 5 device can preorder it on the Nokia site, where it's described as "fast – very fast".

"[The N900] races through websites, apps and emails," adds Nokia. "It's easy to customise – just tap the huge, bright touchscreen. And it's big on movies, photos and music, with a whopping 32GB on board."

Based on a 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, the smartphone has a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 1GB RAM, WiFi, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera.

Vodafone's pricing plans for the N900 have yet to surface, though customers have the option to sign up for email updates. The network will also become the third to stock the Apple iPhone from early 2010.

Nokia's representatives have had to deny ongoing speculation that they plan to discard Symbian in favour of the Linux-derived Maemo for all their N-series devices, maintaining that their original operating system "will continue to co-exist" with Maemo.