Nokia N91
Nokia N91 is coming; eventually
Nokia is preparing its multi-fronted assault on Apple's share of the music content download with its XpressMusic service- aimed at Apple's iTunes. XpressMusic will work in conjunction with their line of media playback communications devices. The N91 is Nokia's line of cellular phones that can playback MP3s through a 3.5mm headphone jack. The N91 has a high capacity micro-hard drive and the capability to manage a large number of files. Nokia's long awaited N91 will offer a 4 gig capacity and will be capable of carrying up to 3,000 tracks of music and other media files.
In conjunction with their own XpressMusic service, Nokia users can download music and play it immediately over their phone using their 3.5 mm headphone jack. The industry standard mini-headphone jack is what puts this new breed of cell phones in direct competition with MP3 players. The obvious advantage to the N91 over a conventional MP3 player is the fact that the N91 is also a cell phone with a color screen and video playback functionality. This handheld Smartphone supports Bluetooth, wi/fi 802.11b and 3G wireless networks, as well as GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 MHz digital cellular networks. This is truly one connected handheld with more local and wide area connection options than most people can possibly require.
Wired connections will also be handled by USB2.0 to get your massive MP3 library uploaded quickly and easily. Nokia's pause/play feature is a handy way to keep the music playing between calls. The phone will automatically put your music on pause when you answer an inbound call and then start the music once you hang up. The musical playback is enhanced with an 8-band equalizer and records music through a line-in connector or from a built-in FM radio. The N91 will also include a 2 Megapixel camera which can take pictures up to 1600x1200 resolutions. The handheld also includes a 176x208 pixel display and an Opera based web browser will handle your web browsing over its tiny screen.
Unfortunately Nokia has announced a delay in rolling out the product. Originally it was slated for a Q4 2005 release; now they promise it'll be out in early 2006. The Finnish cell phone manufacturer says the delay is only so they can include support for DRM protected version of WMA (Windows Media Audio format). Competitor Samsung and their SGH-i300 is still promised to ship in Oct '05 while Nokia is busy implementing copy protection for WMA.
Nokia is the world's largest cell phone company and stands to take a chunk out of Apple's MP3 player market share with the one-two punch of the XpressMusic download service and their own sophisticated Smartphones. But one hurdle they might not be able to overcome is the cost. They're much more expensive than an iPod and larger. It seems the trend in North America is toward smaller, lightweight and lower capacity MP3 players at proportionately lower costs. That and the 4 hour maximum battery life of a Smartphone these days means they have a long way to go before they can match the 14 hours of an iPod Nano.