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October 3, 2008
Lumia

Now that the dust has settled



LONDON, England – There’s an inevitable mania and intensity that envelops any significant product or service launch, and last night it felt somewhat amplified.

No doubt because the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (the artist previously know as The Tube) had been the rumour mill poster child for over a year, and word of its imminent announcement was stoking the atmosphere. Plus the event was held at Koko in Camden, London, a charged and opulent venue that naturally provokes a disarming atmosphere of awe, given the who’s who list of musical greats who’ve played there.

Now the fog (well, dry ice) has lifted, there’s daylight and we can soak up the reactions and conversations surrounding last night’s unveilings that are happening elsewhere. The good, the bad and the thought provoking. Read on for some choice highlights…

Jack Ewings for Business Week posted an interesting take on the 5800 and it’s impressions of what this new device means on the bigger picture:

Business Week: “don’t—repeat, don’t—call it an iPhone killer. With 40% of the global handset market, Nokia (NOK) is not in the business of copying puny rivals such as Apple (AAPL). Rather, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s executive vice-president for markets, calls the 5800 a “youth-oriented multimedia product made very affordable to the target audience of heavy music consumers”… Maybe a better description of the 5800 would be iPhone triangulator… not aimed directly at the hard-core iPhone crowd. But the 5800 does indicate how Nokia hopes to ensure that Apple remains a niche player in the global handset market. Nokia will try to smother Apple and other rivals with a range of touch products, aiming to peel away different target groups.”

The Times Online reviewed the 5800 XpressMusic, putting it alongside the iPhone and Google G1 handsets:

Times Online: “Nokia’s touchscreen is arguably on a par with the Apple handset and is likely to cost significantly less when the final operator packages are worked out… For Nokia’s first attempt at a touchscreen, this was pretty impressive.”

Similarly, Will on IntoMobile highlighted:

IntoMobile: “Nokia isn’t going to let the iPhone 3G trump its Tube on the feature-tip. The Nokia XpressMusic 5800 Tube sports all the high-end features that we’ve come to expect from Nokia.”

On the flip side CrunchGear certainly didn’t seem to take a shine to it, but the discussion in the comments section for the piece certainly highlight that there’s a well-balanced debate going on about the product and the entire mobile scene.

What do you think to the new 5800 XpressMusic and Comes With Music? Jot down your opinions in the comments section below.