Nokia takes on iTunes in digital music market

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HELSINKI (AFP) — Nokia, the world's leading maker of mobile phones, unveiled on Wednesday a new digital music shop designed to loosen the grip of Apple's iTunes on downloads.

The high-tech Finnish group is to launch a new portal for users called Ovi, which will include the Nokia Music Store, a virtual record shop with a catalogue to rival Apple's.

Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the store, set to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, would have "millions" of tracks to download.

"Our target is to have all the music in all the world available to everybody," he said.

Nokia Music Store will open initially in selected European markets, before being rolled out to other European and Asian markets in the following months, the company said.

Singles downloaded from Ovi.com -- Ovi means door in Finnish -- will cost 1 euro (1.4 dollars) and albums 10 euros, and users will able to connect to the store from their handsets and computers.

The launch of the idea comes on the back of Nokia's acquisition last year of digital music distributor Loudeye for about 60 million dollars and shows how the company is moving away from being a simple handset manufacturer.

"With a single account, music lovers can access the Nokia Music Store via their desktop computer or directly from optimized Nokia devices," the company said in a statement.

"The first version of Ovi.com is scheduled to go live in English during the fourth quarter of 2007 and additional features and languages expected to go live during the first half of 2008."

Apple's iTunes music service is by far the biggest legal download site for popular music and is credited with revolutionising music distribution, taking sales away from real-life record shops and illegal download sites.

Nokia also revealed that it would launch specialised "XpressMusic" handsets with long playback time designed especially for playing downloads. These are to hit the market in the fourth quarter.

In another sign that the Finnish group plans to take sales away from California-based giant Apple, it said it had developed new phones incorporating touch-screen technology similar to the Apple iPhone.

Apple has launched the hit iPhone, which is controlled using a touch-screen rather than a keypad, in the United States and a rollout in Europe is to take place in the next few weeks.

Nokia's touch-screen phones will be launched in 2008.

The Ovi.com portal will also offer gaming via the N-Gage games portal as well as maps and tourist guides on Nokia Maps.