Although Nokia hasn't used the phrase, their recent announcement about a limited rollout of the Next Gen N-Gage platform next week has all the hallmarks of a public beta test. The service will only be available to N81 and N81 8GB owners, and it will consist of "one or more games". This clearly isn't a launch, but this very limited rollout of a "pre-release version" is possibly the only way that Nokia can make sure the platform has been properly tested with large numbers of real world users. By most laypeople's definition, that's called beta testing, and it's odd that Nokia seems to be avoiding that phrase.

If you do manage to take part in the "first access" event next week, there will be a specially set up forum on the official N-Gage site which is designed to gather feedback about any problems you may encounter using the pre-release software. Keep an eye on the Official N-Gage Blog to find out more...