NOKIA, a leading handset manufacturer, has launched mobile phones with a music service that allows unlimited downloads of music.
The service dubbed ‘Comes with Music’ will be available across a range of Nokia devices, including the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (touch screen), the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.
The company officially unveiled its much touted first touch screen phone, Nokia 5800 Xpress which will be among the first devices to support Comes With Music.
At a colourful ceremony dubbed ‘Nokia Remix’ held in London on Thursday Nokia announced the debut that would see customers who buy a Comes With Music device explore and enjoy a diverse catalog of music with unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year, keeping the music once the year is over and revolutionizing their digital music experience.
“Comes with Music sets a precedent for consumer value and convenience that the rest of the digital entertainment industry is already copying,” said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president and head of the Nokia entertainment and communities business.
This move would put mobile phone music market leader Apple iTunes under pressure as the Nokia offer seems free to the end user as costs to down loads are bundled with the phone price unlike in the iphone.
Kenyan musicians are set to benefit immensely once the special handsets are shipped to Kenya as this will mean a new revenue stream.
In an Interview with the CAJ News Agency during the launch, Mr. Chris Harris, Nokia’s Marketing Strategist said Comes with Music offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue and customers can keep all the music that they have downloaded at the end of the year to continue enjoying their music collection.
He said artists would benefit immensely from the scheme and make up for falling CD sales as well as reduce illegal music downloads.
“We have a mechanism that would help us track down the downloads so that artists can be promptly paid from the sale of each phone” said Harris.
A senior music executive in London as reported by Financial Times said: “We are being killed by piracy and we need to do something creative to get ourselves out of the hole. These sort of deals are one of the ways to claw back cust9omers we have lost over to piracy over the years.”
Already Nokia has set a Nokia Research Centre for Africa (NoRA) in Nairobi to spearhead introduction of mobile services unique to Africa.
The center, said Nokia Research Leader, Mr. Jussi Impio, will allow Nokia to better understand the needs of its African customers in order to develop devices that can offer benefits in health care and education.
“Nokia Research Centre will work with universities and non-governmental organizations to develop prototypes of devices that are suited to the African market, as well as study the telecommunications services sector on the continent,” said Petteri Alinikula, Vice President and Head of Core Technology Research in Nairobi on Tuesday last week during NoRA’s launch.
With more than 10 million units sold globally since its introduction last year, said Harris, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is the best selling music phone in the world so far.
The United Kingdom will be the first market to offer Comes with Music with sales planned to start on October 16, 2008.
The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Comes with Music edition is expected to cost sh17, 680 (£129.95) and comes with a 12-month subscription to the service.
With the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, we set out to connect people through the one thing we all feel a universal connection to – music,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers all the music essentials, including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory (expandable to 16GB) for up to 6000 tracks and support for all main digital music formats, and a 3.5mm jack.
Built-in surround sound stereo speakers offer the industry’s most powerful sound.
Ensuring a seamless music experience, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic also provides easy access to browse and purchase tracks from the Nokia Music Store, where applicable, while the accompanying newly updated Nokia Music PC software allows for easy drag-and-drop transfer of songs and management of any music collection.
The phone also features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and, with a single touch, images or videos can be shared via a favorite online community, such as Share on Ovi or Facebook.
At a glance
Nokia launches pioneering Music Phone and its first touch screen phone.
The service will also benefit artists as they will be paid from all the handsets sold.
Nokia also launches a research centre for Africa in Nairobi
Nokia manufactures one million phones every day and sells 15 phones every second according to the company’s statistics
Global statistics indicate there are 3.3 billion mobile phone subscribers world wide.
By 2009 there would be one billion wireless broadband subscribers and 1.2 million subscribers are added daily.
By Brian Adero.
how do l know original nokia please.