Nokia plans to roll out its unlimited music service in Australia during the next few weeks, the move comes as the Company struggles to hold onto sales. In the UK one of the biggest phone retails Carphone Warehouse has cut the price of Nokia’s first mobile phone to offer unlimited music downloads by more than a third due to poor sales, analysts claim.
“The next two countries which we are going to roll out in the next 10 weeks are Australia and Singapore,” Tero Ojanpera, the head of entertainment and communities, told a music conference. “We’ll be launching there in February and March.” However a big problem for Nokia is that phone carriers like Telstra and Vodafone have their own music offerings and will not necesarily support an additional music service.
Nokia’s “Comes With Music” service offers unlimited music from the four major music labels and many independents. The music can be kept after the yearly contract has expired.
The individual tracks download to a phone and a single computer and are free, though the cost of the music is wrapped in phone charges.In the UK analysts say sales of the device have been poor and that Nokia is struggling to convey to consumers exactly how its all-you-can-eat music proposition works.
Paolo Pescatore, analyst at CCS Insight, told the Times that sales of Comes With Music have been “lacklustre” so far.
“They are struggling with sales,” he said. “Nokia is keeping shtum about figures but we’ve heard from sources they had hoped to do better in the run up to Christmas.”
The launch of Comes With Music is a big test for Nokia, as it is the Finnish giant’s first big push into the mobile services market.
The service allows consumers to download an unlimited amount of music from the four major music labels and many independents to their computer or mobile without any digital music rights. This means the songs can be kept even after the yearly contract has expired.
In the US market Nokia has seen sales slide from 15% market penertration to less than 8% during the past 12 months.
