Nokia Comes With Music
Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, will launch its free music package on Thursday, issuing a challenge to Apple's dominance of the digital music market.
Nokia is expected to unveil more details of its 'Comes with Music' package at an analyst and media event in London. The Finnish firm will also launch its first touch-screen phone, to rival Apple's popular iPhone, sources have told Reuters.
'Comes with Music' and similar products from other hardware vendors could help the music industry make up for falling CD sales and cut illegal downloads.
The battle for mobile music is increasingly crowded, with Sony Ericsson launching its music package this month in Sweden, while South Korea's LG Electronics plans a service similar to Nokia's.
Nokia's package will differ from others on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during a 12- month subscription period. There are no charges for tracks downloaded, since the cost is bundled to the phone price.
"'Comes with Music' could potentially bring free music to millions of consumers, radically changing the music industry, and offering a significant threat to Apple's dominance," Strategy Analytics' David MacQueen said in a research report.
"In a market where price and selection are so much more important than brand to consumers, Apple cannot count on retaining users when competing with an offering which seems free to the end user."
Nokia stock was 1.1 percent softer at 12.97 euros ahead of the expected news versus a 0.34 percent firmer sector index. The stock has more than halved in 2008 on industry growth worries and Nokia's third-quarter market share warning in September.
Source and read more
Nokia is expected to unveil more details of its 'Comes with Music' package at an analyst and media event in London. The Finnish firm will also launch its first touch-screen phone, to rival Apple's popular iPhone, sources have told Reuters.
'Comes with Music' and similar products from other hardware vendors could help the music industry make up for falling CD sales and cut illegal downloads.
The battle for mobile music is increasingly crowded, with Sony Ericsson launching its music package this month in Sweden, while South Korea's LG Electronics plans a service similar to Nokia's.
Nokia's package will differ from others on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during a 12- month subscription period. There are no charges for tracks downloaded, since the cost is bundled to the phone price.
"'Comes with Music' could potentially bring free music to millions of consumers, radically changing the music industry, and offering a significant threat to Apple's dominance," Strategy Analytics' David MacQueen said in a research report.
"In a market where price and selection are so much more important than brand to consumers, Apple cannot count on retaining users when competing with an offering which seems free to the end user."
Nokia stock was 1.1 percent softer at 12.97 euros ahead of the expected news versus a 0.34 percent firmer sector index. The stock has more than halved in 2008 on industry growth worries and Nokia's third-quarter market share warning in September.
Source and read more
0 comments:
Post a Comment