Nokia has launched Ovi -- Finnish for "the door" -- in hopes of cashing in on the increasingly lucrative Internet services market.

Ovi will debut in English in the fourth quarter of this year, with more services and languages available throughout the first half of 2008. In addition to Nokia's own offerings, Ovi also acts as a gateway to existing social networks and content.

"Good move to make a top down brand for folks to enter," JupiterResearch senior analyst Michael Gartenberg said. "There's lots of questions on how this links to third party stuff and how it relates to partner offerings from Yahoo or MSN."

Nokia will provide three services to kick off Ovi, including a resurrection of its N-Gage brand, a mapping application, and a music store.

The music store will allow users to download songs to both their PC and Nokia devices, and would initially be available in Europe. Tracks will cost 1 euro and tracks 10 euros, with a 10 euro monthly subscription plan for PC streaming radio.

All tracks will be delivered in Windows Media Format at a bitrate of 192Kbps. Nokia's choice of Microsoft format is not all that surprising: the two sides came to an agreement in February 2005 that brought the format to Nokia's phones.

In developing the music store, Nokia said it wanted to be more "locally relevant." The company is working with several local labels to ensure the company is carrying a broad catalog of artists that may be popular in a specific region but not in the rest of the world.

N-Gage -- Nokia's failed gaming effort -- will also be making a comeback, although this time not as a separate device line but rather a platform on which games for Nokia devices would be delivered. It will be available as a download for S60-based handsets beginning in November of this year.

"The industry is converging towards Internet driven experiences and Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility," Nokia president and CEO Pekka Kallasvuo said. "Over the coming 12 months, you will see us integrate new user interface elements, service suites and web communities to Ovi."

In conjunction with the release of Ovi, Nokia also debuted five new phones that are optimized for the content the service will provide.

The Nokia N81 and N81 8GB will feature 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and are designed to allow easy discovery of entertainment content. Those devices will retail for 360 and 430 euros respectively, and are slated to debut in the fourth quarter.

The Nokia N95 8GB will be the larger cousin of its predecessor, and would also sport a new 2.8" QVGA display. The expected retail price is 560 euros and the N95 8GB will also ship in the fourth quarter.

Finally, two new XpressMusic phones were announced: a lightweight compact version and a larger model with a better internal camera. Retail prices are expected to be 225 and 300 euros, respectively.