The Nokia N97 has a lot of hype to live up to. It's been billed as an iPhone competitor, and soon we'll get to see how apt that classification is. A new rumor has the N97 shipping to stores on June 2nd. Boy Genius has come across a screenshot from the website of a major distributor, which lists the shipping date and gives us a few other tantalizing rumors.

We can see from the screenshot that the N97's list price is set at $699, but that the customer price is somewhat lower. It's been partially obscured, but we can tell that the cost is somewhere around $500, I'm expecting $599 myself. The pre-orders already sold for $454.35, so your chances of getting a cheaper deal on an N97 may already be past.

This June launch puts the N97 just a little ahead of the Palm Pre and concrete news about the iPhone 2009. Nokia's not going to have a whole lot of time to gobble up customers before the big dogs hit the market, and I'm not sure how they'll remain competitive with a six hundred dollar price tag. The N97 had better be one hell of a smartphone if it hopes to stand a chance.