Nokia will open a flagship retail store on June 21 in Chicago, with a store in the "Fifth Avenue region" of New York to follow, Nokia exec David Watkins let slip to me yesterday. What's better is, the store will sell all sorts of juicy, high-end products that we've been so far unable to stare at and touch in the US, such as the 3-megapixel N80 cameraphone and new N93 camcorder-phone (at right). The store will be staffed by trained Nokia personnel that will actually know the company's entire product line. Obviously, with only a few stores, this isn't going to make a huge difference to Nokia's bottom line, but it's a good way of raising brand awareness and of tweaking the cell-phone carriers who refuse to pick up high-end or innovative models.

This means I'm eating my words about Nokia's high-end phones being "not for you," and I couldn't be happier. While some high-end phones have been available either directly through Nokia's Web site or through potentially shady third-party dealers, this is a huge step forwards in terms of putting actual hardware in front of ordinary people with trained staffers to explain why smartphones are cool.

Read more in my article at PCMag.com. (I have the store address in there and everything.)