Nokia unveils iPhone competitor
You might not be aware of this, but there’s just been an earthquake in Finland. Figuratively speaking, anyway. Said earthquate occurred at precisely 12:30 PM EDT, today. That was the moment that Nokia took the wraps off its real competitor to iPhone.
Specifically, three announcements were made:
Nokia unveiled the 5800 XpressMusic (press release, datasheet). It’s the first mass-market device from Nokia with touch-screen technology. As you can see from the video, it looks very familiar, being a Symbian OS with touch capabilities built in. At the same time, it has some familiar elements of other touch screen interfaces we’ve seen such as easy fingertip transitions. You might also note in the video that at times the demonstrator seems to be pushing on the screen. The 5800 XpressMusic also includes haptics to provide tactile feedback to the user. Check it out.
Comes with Music (press release, backgrounder) is Nokia’s new digital entertainment service. When you buy a supported Nokia device, including the NSeries, any of the XPressMusic phones and some other mass market phones, Nokia gives you access to the Nokia Music store at no additional charge for an entire year. Download (and keep) as many tracks as you like. This is not a subscription. You get to download and keep as many tracks as your heart desires. Tracks are delivered in Windows Media format, with DRM.
S60 5th Edition (press release) was also introduced. This latest operating system release includes support for new displays, the touch UI, a widescreen mode, a variety of new sensor support, and updated applications and browser support. Wonderfully cool things are possible with the new sensor support, like being able to stop the ringer by picking the phone up and putting it back down face down.
A touch screen phone and operating system were not unexpected. After all, Nokia had to respond to Apple’s phenomenal success with iPhone. However, the gutsy decision to give away the music goes straight after Apple’s cash cow, iTunes.
Scorched earth is a powerful offensive posture. One wonders what kind of deal with the devil RIAA Nokia had to agree to in order to gain the rights to distribute all those tracks for no money… and what the impact will be on their bottom line.
Look for 5800 XpressMusic devices with North American standard radios to land here Q1 2009. Exciting times are ahead.
Related links:
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic aka the Tube released plus first hands-on
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: Hands-on With Nokia’s First S60 Touch Phone
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic hands-on
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Here’s a guess – Nokia are paying nothing to the RIAA. Microsoft are paying the bill
to try and save their DRM
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:12 am
[...] Nokia unveils iPhone competitor [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
[...] Nokia Via Saunderslog] Technorati Tags: [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:45 am
[...] Nokia unveils iPhone competitor [...]
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
[...] deserves a look by potential iPhone buyers. But the question is whether or not this 5800 is the revolutionary advance Nokia needs to compete with the iPhone, or if it offers an over-engineered, offputting user [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 1:22 am
i just buy nokia 5320 xpress music last month and now the come to know about nokia 5800. tell me when it will available in india and what will be price . i want this phone as soon as possible.
great review
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
[...] may remember that a few months ago Nokia announced the MusicXPress 5800, their first touch screen phone. Many thought that was their response to the iPhone, but perhaps [...]