It turns out Nokia’s announcement yesterday of four music accessories was just a warm-up for the really cool stuff. The handset-maker has come out with a barrage of announcements today that will have music fans dribbling with delight.
They include music-themed editions of existing phones the N70 and N73. The main new features appear to be dedicated music keys, revamped software making it easier to get your songs onto them, and they’re a suitably Satanic black colour. They’re expected to go on sale in October.
But the big news is an all-new version of the N91, a couple of brand new N-Series handsets, and an exciting-sounding global music community starring David Bowie himself.
Just to recap, the N91 is Nokia’s flagship music phone, with a 4GB hard drive inside capable of storing up to 3,000 songs. But that’s obviously not enough, so Nokia is also releasing an 8GB model, the logically-named N91 8GB, which comes with all the music enhancements of the new N70 and N73. With space for up to 6,000 songs, the new N91 could start to take on devices like the iPod, as the vast majority of people would be happy with storing 600 albums on a device.
Meanwhile, the N75 is a completely new handset, and Nokia says it’s its “smallest multimedia computer” (i.e. mobile phone) ever. It’s a clamshell phone with the dedicated music features outlined above, an FM radio, 3D stereo speakers, and a two-megapixel camera.
The N95 is a top-end handset with what Nokia describes as a “pioneering” two-way slide concept and a five-megapixel (count ‘em!) camera. You basically slide different bits of the handset out to trigger different uses. It’s also got built-in GPS, which will enable all manner of exciting mapping applications – a big area for Nokia at the moment.
This is all well and good – all of the above handsets are desirable AND have some innovative content features. But the announcement that got my attention was Nokia’s new Music Recommenders community, which launches in November. Basically, Nokia has gathered a list of influential independent music stores from around the world – Fat Beats (New York), Pure Groove (London), Mona Records (Tokyo) and more – who’ll be picking their favourite new tracks every month.
Us punters will be able to sign up to the service, browse the recommendations, download 30-second samples and then buy the full tracks. But wait, there’s more. David Bowie himself will be taking part, picking his favourite tunes and appearing in downloadable podcasts and short films. Cor.
It’s all very exciting, although I can’t help but be a bit worried about this idea of cool independent music stores picking the tunes. This is all very well for Nokia being at the cutting-edge, but will the results be actually listenable if you’re not the sort of beard-stroking muso-snob who often frequents these stores?
If not, this is one announcement that’s more style than content. But I can’t wait to sign up to the beta version in November, to find out.
you shud make a fone with at least a 18 gb hard disck in becuse i could easly fill the n91 8gb up