Digital Home Thoughts: Nokia Debuts New Music Phone Brand

"Nokia on Monday debuted a new brand for its growing list of music-enabled phones in a effort to make them more easily identifiable by consumers. Called Nokia XpressMusic, the phones will have common features such as dedicated music keys and automatic pause and resume of incoming calls. The phone maker's announcement coincides with the unveiling of a new phone to fall under the brand. The Nokia 3250, will support over-the-air downloading, Windows Media format songs, and up to 1GB of expandable memory. The Nokia N91, previously announced in April, and then later delayed until early 2006 will also receive the XpressMusic branding."



The XpressMusic logo will appear on packaging and promotional materials for all phones with a certain set of music feaures. Music-enabled phones are nothing new for Nokia but this latest push is clearly competing against the Motorola iTunes ROKR (which leaves a lot to be desired IMHO). The Nokia 3250 will be available in the first quarter of 2006, possibly at the same time as the N91.