Nokia Launches Unlimited Music Downloads In U.K.; U.S. Coming Soon

First launching in the U.K., Comes With Music will be available on the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Comes With Music edition. Users who buy the device will have access to all of the music available in the mobile phone giant's music store. The device is available exclusively through Carphone Warehouse in the U.K.

So far, pricing has not been announced. Nokia said it expects the device to be available next month as Nokia charges into the ever-important fourth quarter holiday sales season.

"We believe that Comes With Music will transform the way people enjoy music," Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president and head of Nokia's entertainment and communities business, said in a statement. "With unlimited music access for a year, you can enjoy your favorite artists or delve into new genres without having to worry about individual track or album purchases."

At RetailVision 2008 in San Diego last week, Nokia director of retail channel sales Robert Pignataro said Comes With Music will make its debut in the United States relatively soon, though specific details were not available.

According to Pignataro, Nokia is putting a large stake in digital music. With Comes With Music Nokia is offering free downloads for a year that can be kept for the life of the device, a different approach to Apple, which lets users buy individual tracks to be downloaded to the iPhone or iPods through its iTunes music store.

So far, Pignataro said, Nokia's music store has been launched in 10 countries. That number is expected to grow.

"Music will be a big part of our offering moving into 2009," he told retailers during his keynote presentation at RetailVision, where Nokia was honored as retail vendor of the year.

Comes With Music and the Nokia Music Store are key elements of Nokia's push to offer more software and services, which centers around its Ovi Internet services offering. Ovi incorporates maps, games video and Internet, while also enabling users to share content to the Web from their devices.

Like Comes With Music, Pignataro said Nokia expects to launch more services stateside in the coming months under the Ovi umbrella.

"We have a wide range of services coming to the U.S. in a few months," he told the crowd at RetailVision.