NEW DELHI - Nokia’s flagship touch-screen handset N-97 will be launched nationwide within two weeks at a likely price of around Rs.35,000, the company announced Thursday.

“The handset is expected to begin shipping in India in the next two weeks,” Vineet Taneja, director-marketing of Nokia India, told reporters here.

The price of the high-end smartphone would be around Rs.35,000, Taneja said while refusing to give the exact price.

Fuelled by a multitude of media and applications through the Ovi Store, the N-97 transforms the Internet into an experience that is completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its users, Taneja said.

Ovi Store is Nokia’s application downloading service through which users can procure free mobile applications for their handsets.

Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the model supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more.

This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia music store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The N-97 has a five-megapixel camera with high-quality DVD quality video capture.

It also pioneers the concept of a personalised home screen that lets people choose their favourite content, providing an always open window to applications or Internet content such as social networking sites, RSS feeds and other widgets.