Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is apparently close to announcing something really, really big. The announcement is set to be made in Barcelona at Nokia World over the next few hours (early morning on Tuesday Barcelona time). To fuel the anticipation, the company has even launched a countdown to the moment.

Robert Scoble wrote today: “When we got here a Nokia executive met me and bragged that the Internet has no clue what they will announce this week. I asked ‘what about the touch screen cell phone that I’ve seen rumors about?’ He said that no one had gotten it right yet…He told me this is one of the only times he can remember when a big announcement has not leaked. He said that even internally only a handful of people have seen the new device they’ll be announcing on Wednesday.” Additionally, Reuters is reporting that Nokia is expected to bolster its offering of high-end phones and will outline its push into Internet services.

It underscores the battle for the smartphone business, and this will be Nokia’s big push against Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM). As Scoble says, “This is the week when Nokia either keeps its seat at the cell-phone-thought-leadership table or it will give up its spot to Apple and RIM alone.” The problem that Nokia must solve is the issue of usability. For a long time, Nokia has been the leadership in engineering, by making high-end phones that work well, but it’s struggled to make it a service that’s easy to use. Look for this as part of the announcement…if Nokia wants to gain a big share of the smartphone business going forward, it will have to nail this.