Nokia N9 August release hinted, but we need your help to bring it to Britain

What's this? The first hint of a release date for the Nokia N9? A European website is offering the hotly anticipated, much-debated, MeeGo-powered smart phone from 19 August -- but with Nokia yet to confirm whether it'll come to the UK at all, we need your help. Free the Nokia N9!

Kazakhstan site TexhoDom is offering lucky Kazakhs the chance to pre-order the N9 for 99,990 Kazakhstani Tenge, which runs through the exchange-o-tron to around £420. Add on VAT and that sounds about right, but we'll still believe it when we see it, and here's why.

Either the N9 will land in Eastern Europe in just under a month, or folks at TexhoDom have figured out that inventing a spurious price and release date for a hot phone will get you in the news.

Even if the date is accurate, it's no guarantee we'll get our hands on the N9 here in Blighty in August -- or ever. Nokia told us it can't confirm the release yet, making us wonder if the phone will come to the UK at all.

It seems the networks are shy of a phone powered by an operating system that's essentially dead on arrival. MeeGo is a slick and intuitive software that impressed us when we tried it out, but it isn't getting the chance to take on Nokia's eye-watering financial woes: despite Nokia's promises and the possibility of running Android apps, MeeGo has already been thrown over in favour of Windows Phone.

The N9 provides the template for the first Nokia Windows Phone, codenamed Sea Ray, but it would be a shame if that was the N9's only chance to shine.

So let's do something about it. If you think Nokia and the networks should release the N9, join our campaign to give the phone the recognition you think it deserves. Tell us how much you want the N9 in the comments section below or on our Facebook page. What would you give up for an N9?