Yes, finally! Nokia has done it for the Middle East region.
Around two weeks ago, we have been invited to an event in Beirut, Lebanon where over 100 journalists would equally attend for the launch of a “new service” by Nokia, one that’s supposed to bring a “unique music experience” to the Middle East.
Being a Regional Press Conference, it was set to be huge. As mobile phones enthusiasts, we couldn’t but speculate: could it be a local Music Store? A new breed of devices dedicated to music (i.e. X6 and X3)? Or could it be the long awaited Nokia Comes With Music?! Maybe a combination of those…
Half an hour into the presentation, which was hosted by our Lebanese stand-up comedian Nemr Abu Nassar and brought up Haitham Jamal (GM/Nokia Levant) – Jake Larsen (Head of Music/MEA) – Ayman Chalhoub (Global Head of Sales - Music, Growth Markets), we found out it was a sweet combination of:
- The new Nokia X6 (16GB version) which will be available in 2 variants: black and white/yellow.
- Comes With Music service with over 4 million tracks to download from Nokia’s Music Store.
The bigger surprise was when Ayman began enumerating the countries where that service would be available shortly, which seemed endless:
- Lebanon
- Jordan
- United Arab Emirates
- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Egypt
- Oman
- Bahrain
- Qatar
- Kuwait
- Palestine
- Iraq
Yes! 11 new territories for Ovi Music to invade. Come first week of March 2010, the X6 16GB will rock the regional markets with tons of tunes to download Over-the-Air or on 1 computer of your choice. Nokia had initiated deals/partnerships with several local record and production companies like Rotana, Mazzika and Melody Music (in addition to the global ones) to ensure the region gets localized content in the Music Store instead of access to international hits only. So, with over 4 million songs to choose from, I believe we’ll need to invest in new storage mediums.
As for the X6 16GB and before we get into a full hands-on, here are some facts about it:
- The first ever Nokia device to sport a capacitive touchscreen
- 16GB of internal memory, no slot for memory cards
- 3.2” nHD screen with 231 ppi
- 434MHz processor, 128MB RAM
- 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash
- Dimensions are: 111 x 51 x 13.8mm and it weighs 122g.
- Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, and a 3.5mm audio jack of course; No FM transmitter
- Up to 35 hours of continuous music playback.
- It will retail at around $600 (U.S. Dollars) including the CWM service.
This "subscription" to the Nokia Music Store (or Ovi Music, if you will) that you get with every purchase of an X6 16GB lasts for a whole year after which you get to keep all your downloads and replay them forever.
Looking at CWM service and the regions where it has been made available so far, I say the Middle East Nokia team has done a great job bringing it to the Middle East. On the downside, we will be stuck with only one handset for a while – maybe not everyone is a fan of touchscreens – so we urge the local team to ship more handsets that support the service, soon enough. Nevertheless, 11 countries for CWM at once is just beautiful! Stay tuned for upcoming tests on the X6 16GB right after we get over with the pending N900/N97 mini reviews.
You can access Nokia Music Services on music.ovi.com and choose your country. For the Middle East region, everything should be up and running starting early March.
First, it was Navigation that was made free for all. Now it's Music (though it's not quite free, but the fee is insignificant compared to what you get in return). So I believe the Finns are feeling quite generous these days... I wonder what's next.
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