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Oct. 4, 2008

Nokia is launching its all new 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen smartphone. The 5800 is meant to directly compete against the Apple iPhone 3G. Nokia has been preparing for this important day ever since the iPhone came out almost three months ago.

Previously code-named Tube, Nokia'a new wireless handset has several features designed to take away from the iPhone’s early luster.

Most significant is Nokia’s Comes With Music service, which also works on the N95 and 5310 XpressMusic handsets, but has been criticized for its business plan.

It’s important that Nokia is targeting worldwide markets, said Global Insight analyst Peter Boyland.

Nokia’s worldwide market share of units shipped is nearly 40 percent, so the 5800 has a better chance at global success than at U.S. success, he said. The iPhone’s attractiveness is starting to wear off in the wake of technical problems, third-party software controversy and the increasing competitive options, he noted.

Some of the features of the Nokia 5800 SmartPhone include the Symbian S-60 5th Edition operating system, GPS, 3.2-MP camera, tactile feedback and a video-out port. Hardware specifications include 9 hours of GSM talk time, 5 hours of WCDMA talk time, 17 days of standby, 35 hours of music playback, and 3 to 5 hours of video playback depending on format.

The phone also has Wi-Fi, 81 MB internal memory and a Micro-SD slot.

Nokia has its own issues to confront with, such as the S-60 OS’s reputation for being rather slow and maintaining its huge footprint.

Nokia said its new handset will be available sometime either in November or December, although that’s probably only in a few overseas markets.

Its mainstream launch isn't expected until early next year. Nokia said its retail price before taxes and subsidies will be approximately $385.

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Source: Nokia.