Nokia has said the UK will be the first market in the world to
launch its music service "Comes With Music".
Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the
entire Nokia Music Store catalogue, with the ability to keep all
downloaded tracks even after the year is over.
Carphone Warehouse will be the exclusive UK pre-pay channel
offering the Nokia 5310
XpressMusic "Comes With Music" edition phone. The phone service
will be available later this year, and will be seen as a
potentially cheaper rival to
Apple's iTunes service,
although the cost of the Nokia 5310 with the service has not been
confirmed.
People who buy the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic "Comes With Music"
edition will have the freedom to
find and
listen to music from a diverse catalogue, including
international and UK artists.
Tero Ojanperä, executive vice-president and head of the Nokia
Entertainment and Communities business, said, "We believe that
Comes With Music will transform the way people enjoy music. With
unlimited music access for a year, you can enjoy your favourite
artists or delve into new genres without having to worry about
individual track or album purchases."
Andrew Harrison, UK CEO at The Carphone Warehouse, said, "We
expect the Nokia 5310 Comes With Music to be the gift for Christmas
and at the top of all shopping lists.
Carphone Warehouse is accepting pre-orders for the phone via its
web site from
today.
Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said, "With Comes with Music,
Nokia is trying to add more value to its devices to help drive
brand as well as a higher price tag on the devices themselves.
Stephanie Baghdassarian, another Gartner analyst, said, "It
means yet another challenge for the operators trying to promote
their own music service, although it could help boost data traffic
in the case of over the air downloads of the music."
The Nokia music can be downloaded either over mobile operators'
networks or directly from the web using a PC.
Antony Douglas, head of content at O2, said, "We want to make
sure we offer our customers a wide choice of options to get the
maximum benefit of music through O2, and will be watching Nokia's
Come with Music package with interest.
"O2's strategy is to ensure we partner with the best companies
in the music industry. We work with Napster Mobile and Sony BMG who
support our recently launched MyPlay service. Similarly, all our
iPhone customers have access to iTunes, the world's largest music
store."
In the UK, O2 is still the exclusive mobile operator that
supports the iPhone.
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