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Nokia flashes its trump card

A new iTunes-style music store is clever thinking, says
linton chiswick

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Last week, Nokia revealed the final card in a hand played close to its chest, announcing - among other things - an iTunes-style music store that will feature content from all of the big four labels and launch in time for a showdown with the iPhone's European release.

The Nokia Music Store (due sometime in the fourth quarter) is an example of some ingenious strategic thinking on the part of the Finnish phone manufacturer. Having already sold 900 million handsets in 173 countries - many of them multimedia-capable and so effectively 'stealth iPhones' - Nokia has

 

prepared a giant customer base for its music. Clever.

To coincide with the announcement, it has introduced new music-oriented handsets, including a particularly smart- looking device called the N81, Motorstorm image

which boasts a touch scroll-wheel, as tried and tested by the ubiquitous iPod. Again, clever. Its music store will sell music at an iTunes competitive rate (1 Euro/68p per track), and will allow music to be downloaded directly (without a computer as intermediary) to certain handsets - something the iPhone should do, but doesn't.

Nokia will also offer the facility to access unlimited 'streamed'

 

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