It is easy to get hooked to a touch screen phone because the products tend to be intuitive and fun to use. However, the technology is only a couple of years old, making products pricier than comparable mobile phones without touch sensitive screen. Apple doesn't have to worry about pricing of the iPhone too much, since the product is attracting people who can afford the high cost. Nokia was the company that brought smartphones to the masses with its N-series products. Maybe Nokia can introduce touch screen phones to larger audiences than Apple?

Yes, it seems Nokia is seriously targeting larger audiences with the 5530 XpressMusic touch screen phone. The company expects the price to be around 199 euros before taxes and potential operator subsidies. It is one-third from the unlocked Apple iPhone list price. Which features missing (if any) from the Nokia music phone?

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic has 2.9-inch, 640x360 resolution touch-sensitive display. On-screen qwerty keyboard is available in landscape mode. The phone comes with 3.2 megapixel digital camera that can record tiny 176x144 video clips. Music tracks can be downloaded, for instance, from Nokia Music Store. A new feature allows the phone owner to keep track of friends on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Vox. The 5530 XpressMusic is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE data connectivity, but it can't connect to 3G networks. However, the phone comes with Wi-Fi for high-speed Internet access via hotspots. A considerable software package is included with the product for messaging, social networking, photography and gaming. Additional applications are available in Java, Flash and Symbian S60.

Comparing the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and iPhone is not fair because of the price gap. In any case, the main differences are GPS and 3G, which the iPhone has and 5530 doesn't. The touch screen technology and user interface software are different as well. Nonetheless, we believe that Nokia has a product that has enough features to appeal to large markets.

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