Nokia Amps Up Music Offering with the debut of Comes With Music and the New Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Singapore 3 Oct 2008 – At the Nokia Remix event held today in Singapore and earlier in London, Nokia announced the debut of its pioneering Comes with Music digital entertainment service and unveiled the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that brings touch UI to a broader segment of consumers.

Delivering on Nokia’s vision to provide the best total music experience possible, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first devices to support Comes With Music, Nokia’s groundbreaking service which offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue. Customers who buy a Comes with Music device will be able to explore and enjoy a diverse catalog of music of international and local artists in the most natural and spontaneous way, revolutionizing their digital music experience. To date, Nokia has sold more than 300 million music-enabled devices, and the Nokia 5310 hit 10 million in sales numbers., which we believe makes it the world’s best selling music phone.

When it comes to music phones, people all over the world want a device that is a great music experience – with more memory, loud and powerful speakers, easy synchronization, and must still work well as a mobile phone with direct access to important contacts and content.

“With the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, we set out to connect people through the one thing we all feel a universal connection to – music,” said Chris Carr, Vice President, Sales , South East Asia Pacific, Nokia. “The way in which people enjoy music is different around the world. With that in mind, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic gives people the freedom to experience music they love in the way they prefer.”

Comes With Music
“Comes With Music sets a precedent for consumer value and convenience that the rest of the digital entertainment industry is already copying,” said Andrew Connell, Head of Entertainment & Communities Category Management, Nokia. “The freedom and simplicity of the service is unparalleled. Comes With Music gives you unlimited access to the millions of tracks in the Nokia Music Store and the music is all yours to keep – because its not a revolution unless you get to keep your music.”

Nokia plans to roll out the commercial Comes With Music service in Singapore and Australia in Q1 2009. These markets follow after the United Kingdom which will be the first Comes With Music market with sales starting this month.

EMI Group has joined as the latest major label to support Comes With Music, in addition to Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. In Singapore, Comes With Music will be supported by prominent Asian independent labels, Ocean Butterflies Music and Rock Records Singapore. “We are very pleased to also have leading Asian labels as part of our Comes With Music offering for Singapore consumers. This will allow our consumers to enjoy even more localized music as long as they want, anytime anywhere”, said Grant McBeath, General Manager for Singapore.

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. Comes with Music will be available across a range of Nokia devices, including the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.


Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
“As Nokia’s first mass-market device with a touch screen, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic turns a user interface’ into a ‘human interface’ by truly putting people first. For example, we’ve introduced the Nokia Contacts Bar, which is like a digital RSS feed on your life,” said Tuula Rytila-Uotila, Vice President, Category Management, LIVE Category, Nokia. “By adding the benefits of touch screen technology to S60, the world’s leading smartphone interface, Nokia is taking the familiar and giving it a human touch. We have used touch technology where it really adds value such as the Contacts Bar, Media Bar and clever shortcuts from the homescreen to menu items such as calendar, profiles and clock.”

Taking advantage of touch screen technology, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic introduces the ‘Media Bar’, a handy drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment, including favourite tracks, videos and photos. The Media Bar also offers a direct link to the Web and to online sharing. Because the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports Flash content, individuals can surf the entire web, not just pieces of it. In addition, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers all the music essentials, including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory 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.

The innovative ‘Contacts Bar’ lets consumers highlight four favorite contacts on their home-screen and, through a single touch, track a digital history of recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates.

For the best screen resolution available on a mobile phone, the 3.2” widescreen display brings photos, video clips and web content to life in vibrant color and true clarity. With a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and 25 fps recording, the device is ideal for VGA quality video recording and playback.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic 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, Flickr, or Facebook. Music playlist song titles can also be shared through Bluetooth, MMS or online sharing.

Music for the MassesThe Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports 60 languages worldwide, which covers nearly 90 percent of the world's population. As people around the world use their phones in different ways, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a variety of input methods including a virtual alphanumeric keypad, a virtual computer-style QWERTY keyboard, a pen stylus -- and for true music enthusiasts, a plectrum -- are all available.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available worldwide beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated retail price of 279 EUR before taxes and subsidies. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic featuring Comes With Music will be available early next year. Pricing details to follow.

Enhancing the experience, Nokia today unveiled four new music accessories including a new Bluetooth headset and three new stereo headsets.