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On what could possibly be the worst day to be a non-Android, non-Droid phone, Nokia has decided to release an update to one of its smartphones.  The update, dubbed software update 2.0 comes to the N97 today via PC download.  In addition to the update, Nokia has announced that the N97 mini will be launching this week in Europe.

The new update is meant to make the phone better for users, though will most likely not add much for American users to get excited about.  New features include “flip scrolling,” which seems like a nicer way to say kinetic scrolling and should improve scrolling across the entire device; shortcuts to personalized homescreen, Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3D maps (still not as exciting as Google Navigation), and Nokia email.

The new update will be packed into the new N97 mini as well.  The N97 mini is just that, a smaller version of the Nokia N97.  The main difference is that the mini is aimed at “style-conscious people who are active with social networks.”  The emphasis on social networking and the new design brings the N97 mini to €450, which would make importing it more expensive than just buying the original N97 through Nokia USA.

Unfortunately for Nokia, the software update and N97 mini can’t escape Symbian.  The OS just doesn’t seem to work well with American consumers.  While it is fairly popular in Europe, it is still losing ground.  With the N900 coming next month, there is still some hope for an exciting Nokia phone that everyone can like.  However, with Android 2.0 and Google Navigation coming up, the N900 running Maemo 5 will have a harder battle.  It will certainly be a tough decision for many fans of open source phones.

Read [PR Newswire]