Nokia takes on Apple

Stakes are now running even higher in the music and entertainment business after Nokia vowed to take on Apple.

At a three-day industry conference in Amsterdam, Nokia’s top management laid down the gauntlet, stating the company’s objective of becoming the service of choice for socumers looking to organise and get access to their social network and content from both the mobile and PC.This is according to telecoms, IT and media advisor Analysys – experts from which attended the Nokia conference.Analysys head of broadband and media, Mike Grant reports back that Nokia outlined two major initiatives to kick start its bid for domination.First up is the “Comes with Music” service, news of which Pocket-lint has already brought yuou. This sees the phone manufacturer teaming up with Universal Music International to offer unlimited access to Nokia’s music catalogue.The move is sure to rattle Apple, says Grant. “Clearly Nokia expects that users will find free music for a year a compelling alternative to iTunes on the phone.”However, a more significant move is the decision to expand Nokia’s Ovi service into the internet and PC worlds.

At the moment, Ovi provides access to music, social networking, games and GPS services through an on-device WAP portal. But Nokia suggested that customers can soon expect access to Ovi through a web-based portal or through a personalised “dashboard” (for PC users). And again, there are similarities to Apple’s current offerings, says Analysys, pointing to the .mac services.

Both ovi.com and the new PC Dashboard are in internal beta as we write.

source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/