25 November 2008

Nokia India today announced
Scheduled Launch Of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

As part of its strategy to consolidate its position in India, mobile handset maker Nokia announced today the scheduled launch of their highly-anticipiated touch based smartphone for the Indian market.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available in India starting January 2009 for about Rs. 21,839 (336€ or $439), which is by the way nearly as cheap as expected and now I'm really curious why it going to be that expenceive in Europe?!?

Nokia India also announced today scheduled launch of the beta version of the Nokia Music Store that will go live in December 2008.

D. Shivakumar, Managing Director, Nokia India said, "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.

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. The iconic Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers on all these counts."

Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia said, "With more than 300 million music enabled devices sold, and a strong base of over 10 Nokia Music stores in operation globally, Nokia has been able to gain incredible amount of knowledge and insights on what people want in a music device and track important trends on how people consume music. We will continue to break new grounds in this space by building more and better services for our consumers."

Reportedly priced at Rs 21, 839, Nokia's touchscreen phone will be available in India beginning 2009. However, in India Nokia sell phones with no operator lock, unlike Apple iPhone with Bharti and Airtel. So, seems Nokia 5800 Xpress Music is all set to give tough competition to Apple iPhone which retails at Rs 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,000 for 16GB in India. Google phone G1 is said to reach India by December end, is also likely to be priced above Rs 20,000.