Nokia to offer music, gaming through 'Ovi' UPDATE

Nokia to offer music, gaming through 'Ovi' UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:57 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updates with music store details; N81, N95 details)

HELSINKI (Thomson Financial) - Nokia said it would combine all the music, gaming and navigation services it offers users on a platform called 'Ovi' -- the Finnish word for 'door'.

The company plans to introduce Ovi, which will be home to the Nokia Music Store, N-Gage, its gaming platform, and Nokia Maps, to users in the fourth quarter of this year.

Nokia Music Store will open initially in some European markets, before being rolled out to other European and Asian markets in the following months. The company said singles would cost 1 eur and albums from 10 eur, with a monthly subscription for PC streaming for 10 eur.

The launch of the store comes on the back of Nokia's acquisition last year of digital music distributor Loudeye for about 60 mln usd.

Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the store will have a catalogue of 'millions' of tracks. 'Our target is to have all the music in all the world available to everybody,' he said, adding that the catalogue would not be smaller than that offered by Apple's iTunes.

Nokia also revealed that it is to launch four new handsets designed especially for music fans, including a revamped N95.

Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia's core mobile phones unit, told an audience in London that the company will begin shipping the 5310 and 5610 XpressMusic phones in the fourth quarter.

'I believe this is going to be a hot item for Christmas,' Oistamo said, referring to the 5310, which has 18 hours of music playback time and will retail for 225 eur before taxes and subsidies.

The 5610 has 22 hours of playback time and will sell for 300 eur before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia also displayed the N81, a music, video and gaming device, and a revamped version of its popular N95, with a bigger screen and memory, that will go on sale in early October.

'With a single account, music lovers can access the Nokia Music Store via their desktop computer or directly from optimized Nokia devices beginning with the Nokia N81 and Nokia N95 8GB,' the company said in a statement.

The company said gamers would be able to download titles from its rejuvenated N-Gage platform through Ovi for between 6-10 eur after trying them out for free.

'The first version of Ovi.com is scheduled to go live in English during the fourth quarter of 2007 and additional features and languages expected to go live during the first half of 2008,' the company said.

It said more services would be available through Ovi in the months following the launch.

james.etheridge@thomson.com

je/ajb

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