Date:04/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/04/stories/2008100460401900.htm

Business

‘Smart’ touch phone from Nokia

Anand Parthasarathy

Set for India release by year end

— PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

PHONE:MUSIC COMBO: The launch of Nokia’s new 5800 music touch-phone (shown here) complements an unlimited annual music download service with select models.

LONDON: Having toyed for months with its own challenge to ’smart’ touch-sensitive phones like Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Omnia, the biggest handset maker of them all, Nokia, has finally entered the lists. This week sees the global unveiling here of the 5800 XPress Music, a mobile phone optimised for music and browsing experience, with a semi-professional-style camera and satellite navigation thrown in. And yes, it makes and takes telephone calls. Nokia calls this the ‘first mass-market phone with a touch-screen’ — at a suggested price of euro 279 ($390) before any service provider subsidies, it costs about half the asking price of most other smart touch phones.

Vice President Jo Harlow said the company had taken its time to get the product design just right, with intuitive controls, multiple ways of entering text including a virtual qwerty keyboard for tapping or stylus and a conventional numeric keypad with advanced ‘haptic’ touch features. The new handset is to be available in India by year end.