Monday, April 03, 2006

Nokia phones hitting the market that target the iPod and Blackberry devices

Nokia is currently hitting the market with three phones designed to compete head on with the iPod and Blackberry devices.

The company's premium music phone, the N91, will start shipping this week, according to Nokia's Multimedia division. The phone's 4GB hard drive stores up to 3,000 songs.

The N71 and N80 phones, designed to take on Blackberry devices, will start deliveries in the next two weeks.

These devices in my opinion respectively present the first real and present danger to both the iPod and to the Blackberry. Storing 3,000 songs makes the mobile phone/music player a reality. And the email and calender functions of the two Nokia business devices will allow corporations a real alternative to the Blackberry.

The multi-million dollar question is how easy Nokia's devices will be to use. For Apple and RIM's success relies strongly on their simplicity out of the box, something they can pull of more effectivley given both companies control the hardware, software and services.

Nokia only has the hardware and software part of the equation - leaving the services part to the operators, something the operators to date have not been great at. But, they're learning fast.

Apple and RIM both have to keep pushing innovation's envelope to stand a chance of hanging on to their existing market shares. That means more features on your Blackberry and a mobile phone enabled iPod - surely!

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