Nokia Australia this morning announced the availability of its flagship N-Series handset, the N96.

A successor to the popular N95 and N95 8GB handsets, the N96 boasts a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in GPS, 16GB of internal memory with room for expansion of up to 24GB and a 2.8in display.

Aside from its wealth of hardware features, the Finnish giant claims the N96 represents a change in strategy with an “emphasis on services based features”.

Consumers purchasing the N96 in Australia will receive Share on Ovi, a service enabling the uploading and storage of personal media, a three month subscription to full turn-by-turn navigation with Nokia Maps, three trial games on Nokia’s N-Gage service and a $20 voucher for Nokia’s Music Store.

“Australia is very much a services driven market with a culture of early adopters, but it is also a strong services minded market”, said Nokia's Emile Baak. “The N96 is simply in a league of its own. It is a force to be reckoned with, taking video and camera capabilities, music playing, navigation and Internet connectivity to the next level.”

In addition to Nokia’s services, the N96 also offers Australian consumers the choice of downloading one of four series of leading BBC TV shows, including Walking with Dinosaurs, Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and Yes Minister. The series can be downloaded through a PC and then synchronised with the N96 using Windows Media Player 11. The content is DRM- protected, so it can’t be played on any other device.

The N96 will be available on all four Australian carriers (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 Mobile) from 26 September, and carries a recommended retail price of $1349.