The history of the dedicated trend of the music Nokia devices had started back in 2005 with appearance of 3250, the smartphone designed especially for young people and with an accent on music playback. A bit later Nokia N91 appeared, which became a flagship model offering an unparalleled sound quality available on the market. Because of its high price the last one wasn’t really popular though, the model wasn’t planned to be sold in masses, it was just to demonstrate the leadership of the Nokia company in the field of technology, and the device managed to cope task successfully. Nokia N91 wasn’t remained unchallenged for the whole sales period, as well after reincarnated in a slightly revamped 8 Gb version. Nokia N91 also had set a new level in sound quality and playback control convenience, but the single, very expensive device couldn’t success in creating a valid music offering in Nokia model line. By the same time, the mass 3250 model had become a bestseller over a short period of time, just during a single quarter the sales counted over 1 million devices, during the next half year this number grew up to four and a half million devices. This way Nokia 3250 had become the most successful music phone of 2006. It doesn’t mean that it was the most numerously sold product in the segment, the main factors of such sales were the brand power, quite a low price and an original form factor – a candy bar with a rotating bottom block, on the one side of which are located the player controls and on the other – a standard numeric keyboard. So, the device provides a high comfort while listening to the music, here different parameters like separated control buttons and the headset supported with a control console allowing to switch the phone on and off without taking it out of the pocket are combined. At the same time the sound quality wasn’t brilliant, it yielded to the Nokia flagship and some music solutions from Sony Ericsson. The sales package contents could sport a bit more variety and quality, the headset was absolutely impossible to use due to its low quality. A quality headset from a 3rd party manufacturer improved the situation, the music sounded no worse in comparison with other similar products from the mid- and hi-end segments, the sound volume was less or more comparable.

The 5700 XpressMusic model became the continuation of 3250 traditions, the smartphone managed to evade all the drawbacks of its precursor – the 5700 possesses a modern and high quality screen, in addition to the highly functional control unit there’s also a high quality Philips headset in the package, as well the rotating unit build was vastly improved, the 3G support was added, and despite all those additions the product price didn’t jump up a lot, it remained within the same price bracket. The sound quality was left on the same level or even improved a bit, but because of the high-quality bundled headset the number of consumers which don’t use 3rd party accessories increased. The 5700 headset is quite suitable for everyday MP3 listening, even for a picky person.

Nokia 3250 has already been taken out of production, now the last bits of the storage supplies are being sold. The 5700 is going to replace the 3250 as the youth smartphone, its price stabilized on the estimated level and surely won’t vary a lot during the whole product life, which is estimated about a year. The rotating block concept has been proven by time, causing almost no negative emotions among the audience (usually young people up to 25 years of age), which gives some ground to predict the implementation of the sae or similar technique in following models, because it saves a lot of casing space by placing the camera module within.

The new strategy's principal steps

Nokia follows the experimental way in product design sphere, the first XpressMusic line has been designed in a white color with red or gray pieces, this color composition appears bright and even a bit aggressive, this immediately defined the audience as mostly young people, the devices can hardly fit the image of an adult. But this hadn’t become much of an obstacle to the sales, an overall number of two and a half million of Nokia 5300 and 5200’s during the 4-th quarter of 2006 and the 5300 model became the most balanced music device in the mid-end segment and also won a bestseller title. But the experiments with design went on and Nokia announced the next generation of music devices generation in a new color, it’s a classic black with red and blue pieces. The design impressions moved to the better side, the black colour looks much more practical, and the additional, differently colored pieces now look much more harmonic. Simultaneously to the changes in coloring the work on other design elements went on. More attention was paid to details, so, for instance the back cover of all the three devices got texturized in a manner similar to dotted painting, while using the phone in everyday life it looks curiously beautiful. We can hardly refrain from drawing a parallel with other music phone manufacturers like SonyEricsson, all the new trends in design are likely to have been orchestrated under the impression of this company’s mobile music solutions, it’s possible to see relations between certain devices betraying this fact. Nokia 5610XM looks much like a sister to SonyEricsson W850i, in fact the similarity between the two is surprisingly high both in design side and in the module arrangement and dimensions sizes. It’s up to the buyer to decide whether it’s bad or good.

The Nokia strategy change in sub-brand XpressMusic direction is defined not only by design changes, but also by a lot of attention paid to numerous misc details. By the mere look of it, the following snaphot taken during the London presentation describes this better than our words, just look at the following list :

Certainly, not all of the announced devices possess all listed qualities, but this will be improved in the nearest future.

If we are up to do some thorough checking on every point separately, we won’t be able to make a generalized conclusion on the Nokia’s strategy, but the combination of all of the listed above allows us to say exactly that Nokia pays much attention to the music trend in their products and will eventually become a music phone market leader over a short period of time. The standardization of sockets and supported memory card types is a most powerful measure taken so far by the manufacturer, which allows the customers not to limit themselves only to the brand Nokia accessories - a lot of customers are sure to fund this as a great plus of Nokia phones.

Collaboration with such companies like Philips, JBL, Altec Lansing came to provide a great advantage in the new devices’ development towards a nex-gen feel. The Nokia power of the Nokia brand multiplied by the power of famous companies dealing with music hardware contribute to the formation of a good consumer opinion about the latest products. The strategy differs from SonyEricsson and Walkman sub-brand policies, aimed at gaining a strong customer loyalty within the dedicated music devices sector, but is more like the future prospects of Samsung. The collaboration of Korean vendor and Bang&Olufsen company has brought nice results in the field of music phone design, but Samsung mainly engages 3rd party companies in supplying some specific details for their phones while Nokia prefers including 3rd party manufactured accessories in the sales packages of their products.

DSP (Digital Signal Processor)

Let’s have a closer look of the dedicated sound processor used in the phones produced by the company. Some references to similar Samsung solutions come to mind, in a dedicated sound amplifier is used, a patented Bang&Olufsen company technology. The sound chip was dubbed ICEpower Mobile and, what becomes clear after a closer acquaintance with its functions, increases the volume of sound output, though leaving the quality aside. Thus Samsung phones provide the maximum sound volume as compared to other companies’ solutions, giving them an advantage among mass consumers. What goes to the sound quality, it is more or less comparable to the majority of similar products.

New XpressMusic series models possess a separated DSP, which in combination with the high-quality headset provides a nice sound quality, but the maximum sound volume is higher in the Korean manufacturer’s phones (F300, Ultra Edition II series, E740, F330 and some other). DSP (Digital Signal Processor) provides additional sound processing algorithms, while ICEpower Mobile just allows to increase the volume. It’s important to remember that while any amplifier increases noises and sound distortion as well, the dedicated sound processor allows to separate the main signal from the noise so the amplifier receives the improved sound signal.

Wording it in a simpler way, DSP operates such parameters like dynamic range (the possibility to transfer sounds of low and high frequencies without distortions), frequency range, nonlinear distortions etc. The Samsung company tries to improve the sound playback by increasing volume and making use of a high-quality circuit technology of the dedicated ICEpower Mobile amplifier (as comparison compared to the usual amplifier used as a part of most of the regular sound processors). At the same time, the Nokia devices are largely aimed at improving the functioning of the sound section.

What the implementation of a quality sound amplifier has to offer to a casual customer? First of all, the loud and high quality sound, which is easily audible in most environments. This is a clear advantage over the many competitive products, though Samsung devices can’t exclusively granted the best buy label. Though technically they might be among the best ones, but the definition of a “best” product itself can only be correctly understood considering the personal preferences of every customer. Someone would prefer a high sound volume and the audibility in different environments, some other person is likely to vote for the best sound quality, the minimum level of distortions and noises, or the usage of “improvizers”, that is simply different equalizer tricks and techniques allowing for a longer battery life during the multimedia cycle. A speculative “ideal music device” has plenty of parameters and they can’t be implemened at the same time with preserving a reasonable product price.

Getting back to the DSP, it’s important to mention that all of its features and functions need a good deal of balancing and final fine tuning, serving the ultimate cause - improving the quality of sound output. Only a well designed balance between hardware and software components can provide the desired result. Another point is that even while using the quality sound processor, the manufacturer might deliberately hamper the progress of sound quality improvements to save some life space for the future models. Quite likely, not every feature of the DSP is used to full extent (if used at all), the product is designed to be an offering optimal for current market situation, quite capable of competing with other solutions, but little more than that. Also, the difference in tuning allows to differentiate the devices by their respective market segment: a cheap serial model for the masses shouldn’t be able to challenge the flagship model in sound quality, that’s as obvious as it comes.

Player controls

Let’s dwell on the dedicated playback controls - the Nokia company was the pioneer in this field even yielding to the world’s leading music phone producer, SonyEricsson with their Walkman product line. Nokia pay a lot of attention to the usability aspect, this statement is equally true for musical phones, business solutions and camera phones alike. Most of the models receive additional control elements to make the control over functions easier. It stands to reason that every customer would prefer a single stroke on a dedicated button to making a few transitions between various menus using the keypad. Every music phone by Nokia come with dedicated rewind, pause and play buttons along with a dedicated button that launches the player application itself. That’s just as handy as it sounds, thus music-oriented solutions by Nokia enjoy a serious success among people looking for a music phone as easy to handle as a regular portable mp3 player. These additional controls keep their respective functions no matter what the menu the user is currently in, so you don’t have to switch applications or take any additional actions besides pressing the buttons themselves in order to control playback settings. Different models sport different layouts for these extra buttons, ranging from being placed at the back side of the rotation block or the slide panel to being located around the navigation button or at the side of the casing on the same level with the screen. A specific trait of the devices based off the S40 platform should especially noted here. Thanks to the MIDP update from 2.0 to 2.1, the extra controls will be used in compatible Java applications and games as well in the nearest future.

The enhanced controls aren’t the only thing that’s included in Nokia products in order to increase the comfort and usability. Additional player launch options come here as well. A number of devices includes an additional button used for minimizing / activating the player application (N91, N71, N81, N5200), others use the pause/play button for the same cause (5300XM, 5310XM), as well as a few more rare options: for instance, with Nokia 3250 and N5700 XM the player application is automatically launched on turning the lower block, but the most peculiar mechanism used for launching the player is the one used in Nokia 5610ХМ.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

In one of our reviews we have said that Nokia 6500 Classic is a key device for the company because a lot of new devices based on it are going to appear soon. An image model Nokia 7900 Prism is just an example of thos, but now it’s a turn for the music-oriented solutions. The 5310 is practically a complete copy of 6500c yet a bit simplified. The step was taken to decrease the price, the casing became less elaborate, the metal parts and the 1 GB integrated flash memory are gone unlike with 6500c and 7900. The rest of the differences are less essential. Nokia 5310 will enter the market in October. The estimated price is €225 euro, some €100 euro less than the 6500c. Its overt competitor is likely to be the SonyEricsson W880i. It’s impossible to keep making comparisons between these models because of the enormous resemblance between the two. The dimensions and weight are very similar. The characteristics are quite alike, look them up in the corresponding chart. We also checked Samsung F300, the slim music phone, and included the test results along. Because of the peculiar (obviously used as an euphemism to the more suitable word ‘wacky’ in this context) design, it’s scarcely popular among the customers and won’t make a direct competitor to Nokia 5310.

	A summarized comparison of the rival products
	Nokia 5310 XpressMusic	SonyEricsson W880i	Samsung F300
Dimensions:	103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm	103 x 46.5 x 9.4 mm	103.5 x 44 x 9.4 mm
Weight:	70 g	72 g	77 g
Casing Material:	Plastic + Anodized Aluminium Pieces	Plastic + Anodized Aluminium	Plastic + Metal
Communications:	GSM 900/1800/1900, EDGE class 10	GSM 900/1800/1900, WCDMA 2100	GSM 900/1800/1900, EDGE class 10
Screen:	2.0" QVGA 16 M colors	1.8" QVGA 262K colors	2.1" 176x220 262K colors
Mpix, no auto-focus:	2.0 Mpix, no auto-focus	2.0 Mpix, no auto-focus	2.0 Mpix, no auto-focus
Storage:	30 Mb of user memory, a microSD 2 Gb card bundled, a maximum capacity of 4 Gb supported	16 Mb of user memory, a M2 1 Gb card bundled, a maximum capacity of 2 Gb supported	128 Mb of user memory, a microSD 1 Gb card bundled, maximum capacity of 2 Gb supported
Battery life, MP3 cycle:	BL-4CT 860 mAh, ~18 hrs	BST-33 950 mAh, ~18 hrs	720 mAh, ~12 hrs
FM tuner:	Yes, RDS is supported	No	Yes
Headset socket:	3,5 mm jack	Fast-port	Brand-specific socket
Remote control:	+	-	-
Release date:	October 2007	March 2007	March 2007
Estimated price:	225 euro	350 euro	270 euro

As you can see, all the characteristics are quite comparable, by the time Nokia 5310 enters the market the price will differ by €100 euro, which is a considerable factor that has a lot of influence over the customer’s choice. The two devices can be compared only because they are both music-oriented candy bars, as stated by their respective manufacturers, those belong to completely different classes: the W880i is marketed as an image phone and the 5310 is a youth phone with an affordable budget price. But a possible comparison is too obvious not to keep getting in mind, so Nokkia 5310 appears more preferable, that’s hardly disputable.

Let’s do a detailed check on what Nokia 5310 has to offer us. The model was designed in the candy bar form factor, it’s quite slim and lightweight; it can hardly ever be felt in your pocket. That fits the idea of a perfect music phone quite well – small and lightweight, always with you.

The build quality of presale devices was nearly perfect, even the slightest play is fixed. The quality of plastic is also quite high, it has a matte surface and doesn’t accumulate grease or fingerprints. The back panel is made of firm dark-grey plastic given a dotted pattern; besides its great looks, it also resists scratching as well as prevents the visible appearance of worn spots. A 2 Mp camera without a flashlight or protective cover comes along. The camera module is one of the cheapest available, its similar to the cameras used in Nokia 6300, 6500 classic, 7500 Prism etc. Photo quality is obviously insufficient, you can see some samples in the Nokia 7500 review, the quality of this camera is virtually identical. The resolution of video clips is 176X144 pixels, it’s actually a very low result nowadays. On the back side there is a polyphonic speaker (only one despite of three openings you can observe) which is hardly remarkable for its sound quality or volume, all in the same level with other devices without stereo speakers.

But the side surfaces of the device look more interesting, especially the top end. There you can find the standard 3.5 mm slot either for the trademark headset or any headphones you prefer. This kind of standardization is advantageous for the customers, who are not limited to the brand adaptor usage only if they want to use a headset manufactured by a 3rd party. The slot position is optimal too, even with the headset plugged in, the device handling stays comfortable and the plug causes no discomfort while the phone is in the pocket. While we’re in this context, let’s see what makes manufacturers places the slot on the side surface? In comparison with SonyEricsson W880i and other devices manufactured by this company Nokia 5310 is much more convenient in the terms of ergonomics. Certainly, ergonomics is quite a subjective value, but the inconvenience of the sidewise positioned socket has been noticed by the majority of users, especially if the plug is large. Besides the headset socket there is a microUSB port covered with a plastic gag, the slot is the same as in 6500c. In addition with data transfer, basic cable can be used to charge the phone. A nearby button acts as power on/off or is used for changing the profile.

The bottom end has no controls or slots, on the right side face there is a double volume adjustment button (the spot nearby is used for hand strap fastening), slim slot for recharging is at the left. Memory card slot is situated under battery case cover, tot replacement is supported. The device supports microSd cards up to 4 GB, for most regions it goes with 2 GB microSD. New type battery, BL-4CT, with the 860mAh capacity, from the manufacturer’s words, provides up to 12.5 days of battery life in standby mode or 4.3 hours of talk mode. In reality we can speak about nearly two days without recharge on moderate duty cycle.

The keyboard is traditional, made of smooth black plastic. Buttons are large and very comfortable, they have moderate motion and clear feedback, buttons backlight is white. Navigation button is made of the same material and also have no problems. Besides standard buttons there are three buttons made for controlling the player, they, in contrast with 5300, are made of plastic and more convenient to work with. The buttons work in all cases, if you are in main menu or using an application, you can also control music. In suspend mode player is started with play/pause button, situated in the centre.

The screen is standard for this generation of mobile phones; it utilizes a 2’’ QVGA TFT matrix which displays up to 16 million colors and shades. The screen quality is at a high level, it is one of the best in its class. Comparing the display with SonyEricsson w880i you’ll be able to see that the both are nearly similar in quality, but the advantage in size is to the side of 5310. The screen brightness is adjusted by light sensor (located near speakerphone), it has already become an ordinary element not only for smartphones, but for most Nokia phones as well. Due to the use of a mirror backing, the 5310 behaves in a nice way when exposed to the sun causing no inconvenience to the customer. Nokia devices of the latest generation are known as ultimate leaders in this aspect. All the information on the screen remains legible, colors don’t fade even in direct sunlight.

Software features of this device are perfectly described by an only phrase, that is Series 40 5th edition, Feature Pack 1. No visible difference is observed in comparison with products lacking FP1 (Nokia 6500 Classic, 7500 Prism), so to get an idea what the standard functions of this platform (message service, phonebook, mp3-player) we recommend you to see our Nokia 7500 review, they are similar to these two models. The player application was improved, a few extra skins were added, and a “live equalizer”, which can automatically switch the settings depending on the currently playing song.

A detailed review of Nokia XpressMusic will be available in the nearest future, and the current article is devoted to summarizing the principal pros and cons of the device. The solution is perfectly balanced and has a great chance for becoming a bestseller. It's the most reasonably priced of the all the slim music phones sporting a fine functionality more than sufficient for the target audience, a high quality screen, an unusual, appealing design, high material and build quality. The sound quality is also on a very high level, it's quite comparable to that of the famed SonyEricsson W880i, and the maximum sound volume is even superior. The rich bundling includes a 2 Gb memory card and a headset with a remote control, which is definitely a very serious advantage as well. Of course, Nokia 5310 is hardly comparable to the ultimate leader of the line Nokia N81 which sports even superior sound quality and volume, but nevertheless the 5310 model stands at the top of its product class.

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Simultaneously to the release of Nokia 5310, being a music-oriented version of the 6500 Classic mode, the company announced Nokia 5610 respectively being a counterpart to Nokia 6500 Slide. This kind of product range expansion is extremely profitable since the development costs of such spinoff phones are rather low, the number of changes needed to make a new model out of an existing one is also not too big. This ends up in the final product having a lower price, such product have shorter development cycles and enter the market earlier than model designed from scratch.

So, Nokia 5610 Xpress Music utilizes the slider form factor, the dimensions are 98,5 x 48,5 x 17 mm. The materials used in the build were changed - while the 6500 Slide model has a body worked out of dtainless still, the majority of the 5610 casing is black plastic, glossy from the front panel and a texturized matte surface on the back. The back panel is similar to that of Nokia 5310, it has a dotted texture and is similarly resistant to scratches. The aluminium pieces are only used at the side edges, contributing to the durability of the casing. Similar to the 5310, the handset is issued in two alternative colors - black with blue or red pieces, both combinations have some distinct harmony and style. The red variant features alternatively colored pieces along the display while the blue one sports a more formal appearance. The handset’s size is compact enough to deserve the epithet ‘comfortable’ though yet not compact to be considered a characteristic ‘slim’ phone.

General Specifications of Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Dimensions:	98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm
Weight:	111 g.
Casing material:	Plastic and a few anodized aluminium pieces
Communications:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100, EDGE class 10
Display:	2.2" QVGA 16 M colors
Camera:	3.2 Mpix, Auto-focus, flashlight
Storage:	20 Mb of user memory, a microSD 512 Gb card bundled, expansion cards up to 4 Gb are supported
Battery life, multimedia cycle:	BP-5M 900 mAh, ~22 hrs
FM tuner:	Yes, RDS supported
Headset socket:	2,5 mm jack
Remote control:	yes
Estimated release date:	November 2007
Estimated price:	300 Euro

The build quality is nearly ideal, the casing doesn’t produce even a slightest sound if squeezed in the hand or folded and unfolded violently, there’s neither a gap nor a play between the parts. The upper edge is remarkable for the 2,5 mm headset socket, the microUSB slot and the charging slot. The small button nearby is the battery cover holder. The right edge hosts a rocker button controlling the camera and the sound volume buttons. The camera is of the exactly same type with the one integrated in Nokia 6500 Slide save for the fact that it’s utilizing no-name optics instead of instead of a brand product. Thus there’s a certain difference in the quality of shots, but it isn’t that big to look like a critical point to most customers. The maximum photo resolution is 2048x1536 (3?2 Mpix) enhanced with an automated focusing system and a LED flashlight, the video frame rate is 15 fps. The camera is truly unique for a music-oriented mid-end phone, all the possible rival products have rather poor cameras with fewer functions. The camera interface is designed in landscape orientation, the camera options are the same with Nokia 6500 Slide.

The front panel of the handset is something which deserves quite a bit of attention. The first glance cast upon the device is likely to fool you into thinking that the buttons are softkeys since they look part of the smooth surface and there are no visible borders or segmentation between them. In fact, those are just regular buttons designed to be absolutely smooth. The buttons are rocker-type, they are comfortable to operate and have a nice feedback. The only minor flaw is the grease-accumulation material of the keypad, - it’s quite obvious that the glossy plastic quickly collects fingerprints, - but on the whole the keypad is one among the best we have ever seen, especially in terms of ergonomics. The navigation button bears a pause/play symbol in the center (and, quite evidently, functions as marked), it’s as comfortable to use as the keypad. The numerical keys look quite usual, the buttons are made from black plastic analogous to the material used in 6500 Slide and rise above the surface just a bit, they’re made. The white backlighting is bright and even

The slide button, a totally new type of a control element, having three possible positions. Moving the slider sideways in any of the menus or during standby servers to launch either FM or MP3 player or switch between the two. This type of button was introduced to make switching playback modes more enjoyable and almost instant, limiting the consequence of required actions to a single touch. The functionality of this control element is still open for improvements since it would be much more appeasing if the button could also serve to rewind the track while in the MP3 mode or browsing frequencies in the FM mode. No functionality of this kind is provided so far and it’s unclear if there will be any improvements here in the commercial version. Anyway, this button as it is now is a serious contribution to the device’s ergonomics rather than an unneeded complication. It also as a finger rest when unfolding the phone.

The display of Nokia 5610 shares a mostly identical build with that of Nokia 6500 Slide, powered by a 2.2’’ matrix with a maximum color depth of 16M colors. The display quality is traditionally very high. It remains perfectly legible in the sun, beating a lot of rivals in this kind of competition. The CIF camera lens and the luminance meter are located below the speaker; the luminance meter automatically adjusts the display backlighting depending on environmental light. Unlike the latest Samsung solutions, it can’t be switched off in this offering by Nokia.

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic gives an idea of a very powerful product of the today’s market, the integrated camera offers a surprisingly high photo and video quality considering the musical orientation of the product, the 3G support is in its right place, the new slide button makes playback control as easy as never seen before, and the unusual and appealing design comes in handy as well, let alone the high quality of the display matrix, sound and the overall build. The price is totally justified, you can get a device standing next to the top business solution N6500 Slide just for €300, along with a richer bundling and enhanced sound quality. The choice between 5610 XpressMusic and 6500 Slide is a tricky matter, the main factor will remain the appearance, the biggest difference between the two lies here, in the other fields actually very few differences may be observed. So far there are no direct competitors to Nokia 5610, this is sure to provide a high demand for the device.

Impressions

The music phone line gradually achieves a greater priority as seen in Nokia’s marketing policy, that’s indicated by a number of other factors as well. The most momentous one (yet unnoticeable to the majority) is the launch of the Nokia Music Store online service, which could be impossible without a strong supporting line of music phones. Each music phone comes with an option to contact the company’s online records shop, where the user can download songs from the database for a small fee. The perspectives provided by this service introduced by a specific phone manufacturer (and not a mobile operator company, sic!) can hardly be underestimated - the user base is very large. As the time will advance they will provide a stable income in a way that won’t require Nokia make any additional investments. As it was discussed in one of the earlier reviews devoted to Nokia N81, the income from the online services run by the company is estimated to be around 50% of the overall income, Music Store meant to play a really big role in this sector.

As a part of the general music phone marketing policy, Nokia pays a lot of attention to such aspects as ergonomics, sales package contents, sound quality and battery life. The latter was among Nokia’s most persistent and well known weak points until recently, the new 5310 and 5610 being the heralds breaking that sad rule: 18 and 22 hours of battery life in a continuous playback cycle is exactly what the manufacturer states for them, of the real life is remote from an ideal situation so in fact those periods are shorter, yet it’s huge improvement in this field.

Now a few final words about the market competition. It’s not a huge secret that one of the most important factors influencing customer’s choice is the product price. The main audience of the music phones are the youth and most of the young people rarely can afford buying top-ranking products. The price policy is the key factor for successful music phone marketing, however some of the less adaptable companies are sensitive enough to catch every subtle move of the market atmosphere, adjusting themselves to the actual demands and possibilities of the market. The most asked for among the music phones are those belonging to the mid-end class, the price bracket between €200 and €300 - that’s the most likely sum a typical customer of this sector is going to offer. The expensive music phones appear to be less relevant, good examples backing this idea are the very modest sales volume of Sony Ericsson W880i and Nokia N91 let alone the near to zero sales of W900i and Samsung i300. The winning combination of low price and smart marketing resulted in tremendous success for such phones as N3250, N5300, the same is likely to apply in future to N5310, N5610 and 5700. Nokia 5300 has not yet phased out, moreover - a new color variant of the handset has been announced (black), the handset is planned to represent the budget class of the musical phones, the sales of which are stably high and are going to stay such judging by the current price policy. These four products are just enough for the Nokia company to satisfy the demand of the audience looking for music phones, the price bracket is broad enough to fill every niche.

Author: Ilia Solovyov, editor@smape.com

SMAPE.com

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