Can’t help itself
Nokia, which has tried before and then backed away from Nokia branded content portals to “encourage” usage, has now launched “Nokia XpressMusic”, a dedicated brand logo designed to make it easy for customers to recognise Nokia products that have been optimised for music.
Each mobile device with the Nokia XpressMusic brand will share features including dedicated music key(s), music pause/resume on incoming calls, support for 3.5 mm connectors and extended battery life, Nokia says.
The announcement coincides with the introduction of the 3250 phone, Nokia’s second music optimized device, whic features dedicated music keys, over-the-air music downloading and up to 1GB of expandable memory. The Nokia XpressMusic logo will begin appearing on sales packages and promotion materials for music-optimized Nokia devices starting with the shipment of the Nokia N91 and Nokia 3250.
“Nokia has blazed a trail for music on mobiles – from personalized ringing tones to integrated FM radios and MP3 support. This year, Nokia has announced two full-featured, music-optimized mobile devices – ranging from the Nokia N91 mobile jukebox, which features 4GB of music storage, to the Nokia 3250 music phone introduced today,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, Music, Nokia. “The Nokia XpressMusic feature brand makes it easier for consumers to identify those Nokia devices which provide a great quality mobile music experience.”
In 2004, Nokia sold more than 10 million mobile phones with an integrated digital music player. In 2005, Nokia expects that number to exceed 40 million.
The issue for operators will be that they will wish to have their own music optimised brands, such as T-Mobile’s JukeBox. Having music optimised devices with longer battery life and bigger memories will be welcome, but Nokia clearly sees the opportunity to take competitive advantage over other vendors.
Mobile Europe’s reservation would be that Nokia has before encouraged early adopters of content and mulltimedia services with concepts such as Club Nokia and white-labelled content portal services for operators. But in the end the industry found that such services worked best with clear operator controll.
This is different, of course, in that XpressMusic is clearly just a label Nokia is going to put on certain products to mark them up as best suited for music. But with rumours that Nokia is also talking to Apple, perhaps the move could also be viewed as a defensive one against the widespread adoption of more clearly identifiable music phones such as Motorola’s ROKR. In the longer term, it’s not hard to see Nokia taking the brand into different areas.
Either way it’s a sign that Nokia still sees itself as a key encourager of trends and foster parent to new behaviours on mobile phones.
Brand mark criteria
To warrant the Nokia XpressMusic mark, the device must meet a number of music-specific criteria, including:
– Great audio quality
– Dedicated key(s) for fast and easy access to the music collection
– Play, talk and play – music pauses when a call comes in, resumes when the call has ended
– Use any headphones for listening with standard 3.5mm jack
– Extended battery time (minimum of 10 hours for music)
– Substantial storage for large number of songs
– Create and edit playlists on the go
– USB 2.0 support for fast and easy transfer of your music
– Wide support of audio formats, including MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC and eAAC+
– Easy access to over-the-air music downloads