Nokia expands its music reach

Number one mobile phone maker Nokia has been fleshing out its portfolio of services since late 2007 with its Ovi portal, resurrected N-Gage mobile gaming platform, and most recently with its Comes with Music initiative. The latter, which now has a slogan as unwieldy as its name ("Your Music Player is Ringing!") has been expanded into more markets and onto more devices.

The Nokia Music Store is currently available in 15 markets. The United States still has not yet gotten the service, but is expected to "later this year." Today's announcement added Mexico, Portugal, Norway, and South Africa to the Comes With Music roadmap. Through the software, users can rip or burn CDs, browse the online store, stream, purchase, organize, and sync their music collections with compatible devices.

According to Nokia, it has sold more than 425 million handsets with digital music player capabilities and a further 700 million devices with a built-in FM radio. Since the company believes phones are the "natural device for listening to the music and carrying it with you," Nokia also expanded its music phone line today with three new devices.

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is the company's first music phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, The 5330 XpressMusic, which bears passing resemblance to the Nokia N95, and the FM radio-equipped 5030, which is designed for emerging markets and carries a pricetag of less than €40.