I think there's a good reason why this was announced now: to stave off the disappointment people will have with the 5800. The 5800is nice and all, but it actually was a disappointing implementation of S60v5. Compared to this it was a joke. It has 2 configurable modes and absolutely no customization, no widgets, no live updating of data on the home screen and it feels like a Fisher-Price. Had they not shown this the perception of S60v5 would have rested on the 5800 implementation which frankly is slow and not all the impressive. Okay for a first attempt but nowhere in the same league just looking at the videos of both and having played with a proto 5800.
People who think this is a jazzed up 5800, open your eyes, or wait until your 5800 arrives. You'll see it pretty fast, it is not an N-series class device for a reason and Nokia made it that way because they clearly were not confident in that first attempt at S60v5 to put it in an N-series. They severely limited it to just serve the basic functions of a music phone with touch screen and that's it.