Fifteen months after taking on the likes of Apple’s iTunes, with its own online music store, global mobile handset leader Nokia has brought the same service -- Ovi Music unlimited – to India. The ‘ desi’ version of the free-to-download music resource, covers19 genres including Rock, Rap, Hip Hop, Pop, Bollywood, Sufi, Indipop, Indian Classical, Devotional, Ghazals, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Bhojpuri. While including major global labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music, the Indian OviMusic also harnesses partnerships with local labels including Yash Raj, Tseries, Eros; and SIMCA (South Indian Music Companies Association).
Customers who buy a Nokia Ovi Music Unlimited-enabled device ( 5800 XPress Music, 5530, 5235, 5130) will be able to download millions of tracks for free, direct to their mobile phone or to their PC from the Ovi Music Store for 12 months -- keep all their downloaded music forever. New songs by major labels will also be available on Ovi Music Unlimited when released in India, Nokia says.
Recognizing the broadband challenges in India, Nokia has reduced the Ovi client size from 60 MB to 3 MB. The site allows search by actor, actress and movie names.
Nokia will also release very later this year in India the X2, the new Ovi Music Unlimited enabled music device. Designed for young music lovers, the Nokia X2 comes with dedicated music keys and 3.5mm AV connector, FM radio with built-in antenna, a digital music player and a 5 megapixel camera with flash and a video recorder.With access to Facebook from the home screen, the Nokia X2 also offers Nokia Messaging for email and IM. It is globally priced at approximately EUR 85.
Only recently, Nokia took on the dedicated e-mail-browser phone market with its free OviMail and messaging on its Series 60 handsets. Now with its latest music store thrown open for free, it is challenging Indian customers with the seeming pitch: Why pay a fee for music and mail – we’ll give it to you free with a Nokia phone! April 30 2010