U.S. Nokia Tube Phone Misses the Mark

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device is no ordinary phone. Nokia positioned it as its first mass-market touchscreen device. But what piqued consumers interest was the free year-long music subscription called 'Comes With Music' that came with the phone.

The Comes With Music feature could help the device compete with Apple's iTunes in popularity, especially in Europe said some analysts. Last month Nokia said it sold one million XpressMusic 500 phones.

But the $400 price tag is likely to be too much for recession-hit American consumers.

Consumers can buy iPods for cheap (a 1GB iPod shuffle costs just $49) and iTunes already rules with the largest market share for online music buyers. Breaking that mold will be impossible for Nokia with its expensive phone.

Nokia hasn't commented about the U.S. telecom carrier that will offer the XpressMusic 500. But unless it can convince one to drop the price of the device through a big subsidy, the Tube is likely to get lost in the shuffle.