Nokia says no deal with Apple on new music phone!

[Dashken]

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK1V.HE) said on Thursday it had no agreement with Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) for the iTunes music service to be included on its upcoming N91 multimedia phone.

But Nokia said that because of the design of the new N-series phones, software developers could readily produce programs to allow the gadgets to use services like iTunes.

"There is no commercial agreement between Nokia and Apple to integrate iTunes into the N-series devices," said Kari Tuutti, spokesman for Nokia's multimedia division.

"But since this is based on a computer platform, anybody -- including Apple if they so wish -- can very easily develop this kind of application and offer it to consumers, via the Internet for example."

Finnish daily Taloussanomat had earlier reported that Nokia would bring iTunes to the N91 model.

Tuutti said Nokia had already seen such applications in research labs, but it had not agreed any commercial deals.

"We are not making any exclusive arrangements with any music store, but believe that we want to give the consumer the choice of where they want to purchase their music."

Music phones produced by Nokia, the world's No. 1 handset maker, have so far been seen as competitors to Apple's successful iPod device and iTunes service.

Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT - news) long-awaited iTunes mobile phone will start selling at major telecom operators by the end of September, the U.S. cellphone maker said last month.

Nokia unveiled in April its N91 multimedia phone which will have a 4-gigabyte hard drive to store thousands of songs. The phone, which will also run on high-speed 3G and wireless LAN networks, is due to hit the shelves by the end of the year.

The N90 multimedia phone is already selling and the N70 version will go onto the market next month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050818/...nokia_apple_dc

[SAMSAMHA]

kudos to nokia for not giving in to apple's itune/ipod. I like ipod but I don't like it's way of controlling your music.