Nokia Reveals iPhone Competitor And Goes to Battle With iTunes

This Winter's Smartphone Wars Are Set: Who's Going To Win? (AAPL, RIMM)

Dan Frommer | October 3, 2008 6:36 AM

Now that Nokia's taken the lid off its touchscreen "5800 XpressMusic" smartphone, the rosters are pretty much set for this Christmas shopping season's smartphone wars. Who's going to come out on top?

Unlike last year, when Apple's iPhone caught the mobile industry with their pants down, pretty much every major gadget maker has a touchscreen smartphone to sell this year. But Apple didn't spend the year standing still: Its phone now costs half what it did a year ago, will be available in ten times more countries than it was last year, and comes with access to the best widget marketplace in the business. For those reasons, we think Apple will easily clobber the competition this holiday season, selling at least the 5 million iPhones this quarter that Wall Street has been projecting...

Nokia Reveals iPhone Competitor And Goes to Battle With iTunes (UPDATED)

At an analyst and media event in London today, Nokia unveiled their company's first touch-screen phone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, otherwise known as the Nokia "Tube," a device designed to compete directly with Apple's iPhone.

Along with the phone, Nokia also detailed plans for their new "Comes With Music" service, a 12-month subscription service which offers unlimited downloads. There's no charge to download the individual tracks because the cost for the music is bundled into the cost of the phone. [Note: this post has been updated throughout the day as news has come in]

Ed: Battle is PC versus Smartphone. 2009 may finally be the year when smartphones register a significant share of page views.