Nokia Releases The Tube, Now The 5800 XpressMusic
By Phil Goldstein
Nokia released a new phone at a press unveiling in London, the previously-rumored touch-screen Tube, which it now calls the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone.Just as the HTC Dream became the G1, the Tube now has a new name, and a whole host of features that will be run off of Nokia's latest Symbian operating system, the S60 5th edition.
The phone is the latest entrant into the arena to see which handset can become an IPK--an iPhone Killer. As with many such devices, the 5800 has some features similar to Apple's iPhone 3G, and a few that make it unique.
The phone will come in three different versions: a quad-band GSM with 850/1900 WCDMA, a quad-band GSM with 900/2100 WCDMA and Quad-band GSM with no 3G capabilities. It has both a 3.2-inch touch-screen display and a 3.2 megapixel camera, WiFi, GPS and HSDPA capabilities, stereo speakers, a touch-screen, drop down media bar menu and finger and stylus user interface controls. It has 8GB of memory, available through a microSD slot. A 16GB slot will be available next year.
The phone will retail for about $390 unlocked before taxes and subsidies, and no word has been given on a specific U.S. release date, though Nokia did indicate it would be in the fourth quarter of 2008. [FierceWireless]
Top Five Digital & Mobile Music Deals
By Joseph Weisenthal
As we gear up for Tuesday’s EconMusic conference in London, we’ve assembled a list of the top five recent music deals by size. Given the tremors in the music industry, it should come as no surprise that the deals—both in size and kind—are quite varied by sector, as players look for exits and felicitous combinations.
-- Sony-Sony BMG, $1.2 Billion, 8/5/08: The biggest deal of the lot, a doubling down on the traditional record label business. That Sony (NYSE: SNE) would eventually buy back Bertelsmann’s 50 percent stake in Sony BMG was a matter of “when” and “at what price,” but not “if.” The ticket price came as a bit of a surprise following weak results at the unit just a week earlier.
-- CBS-Last.fm, $280 Million, 5/30/07: The next biggest deal is the biggest “Web2.0"-ish acquisition. The sale represented a large exit for the UK music site, whose popular social discovery service lacked anything resembling a real business model. It also marked a key moment in CBS’ (NYSE: CBS) M&A-based digital strategy, culminating this past summer with the purchase of CNET.
-- Bennett Coleman & Co.-Virgin Radio; $106 million; 6/1/2008: The parent company of the Times of India newspaper reached outside its borders and its traditional industry with this deal. Virgin Radio was an early online adopter, broadcasting over the internet in 1996. The powerful Virgin brand name was not part of the deal, so Bennett said it would spend $30 million on a rebranding campaign.
-- Nokia-Twango; $100 million; 7/23/07: Twango who? Nokia (NYSE: NOK) spent $100 million for social media sharing platform Twango (think: a basic YouTube/Flickr combo), in an effort to build out its online services business. Not surprisingly, given the lack of significant Twango brand value and Nokia’s drive to create its own umbrella brand, the service joined Nokia’s music download service and N-Gage gaming platform as part of Ovi.
-- Nokia-Loudeye; $60 Million; 8/9/06: Following hot on the heels of Twango, Nokia’s next acquisition helped it hone in more directly on mobile music. Loudeye rode the hype waves but couldn’t thrive on its own, restructuring multiple times before ultimately selling out. Although Loudeye was involved in online music, this deal was really about mobile. The two companies had worked together for a few years before they decided to officially mesh. [paidContent.org]
Flickr Photostream-
- Copyright © 2008-2011 Mobile & Wireless. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Blogger
- Back To Top
- Log in
- Blogger
- Home
Recommended Links-