Up till now, you had to pay subscription fee for it and I don’t think it had many users, especially here in UK.

This is Nokias bold move to attract new customers to it’s high-end market. Nokia has been loosing a lot of customers in this segment to Apple and to phones running on Android platform. Recently Nokia has failed to impress customers with it’s latest smartphones, competition has produced much more interesting and innovative products.

In the press statement, Nokia says that the new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.

Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia said: “This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisition, and our context sensitive service offering, we can now put a complete navigation system in the palm of your hand, wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it – and at no extra cost. By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation.”

Mapping is one of Nokia’s strongest assets, following the acquisition of Navteq, the electronic map company for $8.1bn in 2007. The move to make the maps free counters Google’s announcement in October that it would offer free maps and turn-by-turn navigation for all new Android phones.

Nokia will be integrating location based services into it’s Maps software, for example there will be interface to Facebook, where you could publish your current location. Traffic information, details of speed cameras and speed limits will also be free.

Source: Nokia Press Release

There are other impressive features that are included in this phone like noise cancellation. You will be heard clearly no how noisy your surroundings will be.

E-Series device will include A-GPS, high-speed HSDPA and HSUPA connections, and a 3.2-megapixel camera.

Mobile VPN is built in to make it easy to access company intranets. This comes with Call Connect support, which enables businesses to integrate Nokia mobile devices with corporate phone systems, enabling users to be contactable through a single number, have a single voicemail box and offer least-cost call routing.

Getting up and running with email is simple. Support for Nokia Messaging, Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller make it simple to add personal or work email accounts to the device and the new to the E52 email user interface makes accessing your email a joy.

The Nokia E52 will ship with a 1GB microSD card and a free 60 day trial for Files on Ovi. It’ll be available in two colours, metal grey and golden aluminium which will help show off the 2.4-inch display (which also has automatic landscape support). The device also sports a compass alongside Nokia Maps and A-GPS. Plus, with speedy HSDPA (10.2Mb per second) and newer HSUPA upload access at up to 2Mb per second, the E52 is equipped for effortless content sharing on the move.

It is possible that this device will be as popular as Nokia’s 6310i, which had excellent battery life and was very popular with business users.

E52 will be ideal for people who are always on the phone and use email on the move.

The Nokia E52 is expected to be available on sale in the second half of this year.

In December 2008 Vodafone already announced that 150 employees in Vodafone Ireland will be made redundant.

Weak consumer spending is forcing mobile operators and handset manufacturers to cut costs and optimize their operations. Nokia announced voluntary redundancy and is hoping that it can reduce it’s global workforce by 1000 people.

Nokia hopes to reduce the number of involuntary redundancies that it may have to make as part of cost efficiency plans.

Nokia will open application on 1 March for its Voluntary Resignation Package until 1,000 people have applied. Application will close at the latest on 31 May. Senior executives and direct labourers will be exempt.

Quick glance at features:
• Battery:
- Capacity: 1000 mAh
• Display:
- 320 x 240 pixels
• Network:
- GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
- WCDMA: 900/2100 (Dual-Band)
- HSDPA (3.6Mbps)
• Camera:
- 3.2 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
- Digital Zoom
- LED Flash
• Video:
- Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording
- 30fps Video Recording (QVGA)
- Supported formats: MP4, 3GP, H.264, Flash, H.263 & Real Player
- Video Streaming

• Music:
- Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA
- FM Stereo Radio
- Nokia Music Store
- Nokia Podcast Support
- Nokia Music Manager Support
- Windows Media Player Sync
• Ringtones:
- Monophonic
- Polyphonic (64)
- MP3
- AAC
- Talking Ringtones
- Video Ringtones
• Messaging:
- SMS
- MMS (with video) – E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange)
- Instant Messaging (MSN)
- Text-To-Speech Reader
• Memory:
- Phone Book (unlimited)
- Dialled Calls (30)
- Missed Calls (30)
- Received Calls (30)
- microSDHC (external)
• Call Features:
- Hands Free
- Caller ID
- Voice Dialling
- VoIP Support
• Connectivity:
- microUSB
- Nokia 3.5mm AV connector
- Bluetooth (2.0)
- Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
- GPRS Class 32
• Navigation:
- AGPS
- Nokia Maps
• Security:
- Device Lock
- Remote Lock
- Device and memory card encryption
- Mobile VPN support
• Features:
- Dual Home Screens (Work/Personal)
- Office Document Viewer (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)
- PDF Document Viewer
- ZIP File Manager
- Nokia Web Browser
- Dual Keypad Design

This handset was released last year in several countries, mostly outside EU. Sales proved to be very successful and Nokia already shipped more than 1 million of these handsets in countries where it was launched.

Phone now appeared as coming soon on T-Mobile website, so if you are looking to get this handset and with T-Mobile, you can probably get this as your next upgrade handset.

3 will offer the Nokia N95 8GB on an 18-month contract for £35 a month. Customers will get a mix of up to 300 minutes or texts, plus 1GB of internet access and unlimited music downloads for the duration of the contract.

Carphone Warehouse launched another Nokia handset with this service earlier this month. See blog entry about that here.

Via Mobile Entertainment

Here are Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Specifications:

Size

* Form: Classic with full touch user interface
* Dimensions: 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm
* Weight: 109 g
* Volume: 83 cc
* Touch user interface optimised for one-hand use with tactile feedback

Display and 3D

* Main display
- Size: 3.2″
- Resolution: 640 x 360 pixels (nHD)
- Up to 16 million colours
- aspect ratio 16:9
- automatic orientation sensor (Accelerometer) for display rotation
* 3D image engine

Keys and input method

* Stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and user interface control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini qwerty keyboard, handwriting recognition, full screen handwriting for Chinese language)
* Dedicated Media Bar touch key for access to music, gallery, share on-line, Video Centre and web browser
* Voice commands
* Physical keys for application launch key (menu key), send & end, power, camera, lock, volume up & down

Connectors

* Micro-USB connector, USB 2.0 High Speed
* 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
* MicroSD card slot, small DC jack, Micro USB cable interface to PC (CA-101), TV out interface (CA-75U)

Power

* BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery
* Talk time (maximum):
- GSM 8.8 h
- WCDMA 5 h
* Standby time (maximum):
- GSM 406.2 h
- WCDMA 400 h
* Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 3.4 h
* Video playback time (maximum): 5.2 h, Video playback time (maximum, nHD/Mpeg4) 3.4 h, VGA video playback using TV-Out with Stereo BT Headset 3.8 h
* Video recording time (maximum): 3.6 h
* Video call time (maximum): 3 h
* Music playback time (maximum): Up to 35 h
* Gaming time (maximum): 5.6 h

Memory

* MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 16 GB
* 81 MB internal memory
* 8GB microSD memory card in-box, expandable up to 16GB

Communication and navigation
Operating frequency

* WCDMA 900/2100
* GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
* WCDMA 850/1900 (Latin America and Brazil variant only)
* Automatic switching between GSM bands
* Flight mode

Data network

* CSD
* HSCSD
* GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177 kbps (DL/UL)
* WCDMA 2100/900 with simultanous voice and packet data, maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (UL/DL), CS maximum speed 64 kbps
* HSDPA cat 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps (DL)
* WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g (3G version only)
* TCP/IP support

Local connectivity and synchronisation

* Bluetooth version 2.0
- Bluetooth profiles: A2DP & AVRCP
* MTP (Mobile Transfer Protocol) support
* TV out with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, in-box)
* Support for PC synchronisation with Nokia OVI Suite

GPS and navigation

* Integrated GPS for pedestrian and car navigation
* Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch application
Photography

* 3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)
* Image formats: JPEG
* Carl Zeiss optics
* 3x digital zoom
* Autofocus
* Dual LED flash
* Flash modes: On, off, automatic, red-eye reduction
* White balance modes: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
* Centre weighted auto exposure; exposure compensation: +2 ~ -2EV at 0.5 step
* Normal, Sepia, Black & White, Vivid, Negative
* Dedicated camera key
* Landscape (horizontal) orientation
* Photo editor on device
* Direct printing to compatible picture printers

Video

* Main camera
Video recording at up to 640 x 480 pixels and up to 30 fps (TV high quality), up to 640 x 352 pixels and up to 30 fps (widescreen quality), up to 320 x 240 pixels and up to 30 fps/15 fps (email high/normal quality), up to 176 x 144 and up to 15 fps (sharing quality)
- Up to 4x digital video zoom
* Front camera for video calling
* Video recording file formats: .mp4, .3gp
* Audio recording formats: WAV (normal), AMR (MMS), AAC/MP4 (high quality)
* Video white balance modes: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
* Scene modes: automatic, night
* Colour tone modes: normal, sepia, black & white, vivid, negative
* Clip length (maximum): 1 h 30 min (high or normal quality). Dependable on available memory.
* RealPlayer
* Video playback file formats: MPEG4-SP playback 30fps VGA, MPEG4-AVC playback 30fps QVGA, WMV9 playback 30fps QVGA, MPEG4-SP playback 30 fps nHD
* Video streaming: 3GPP and CIF
* Landscape mode video playback
* Video editor on device
* Video Centre service supported: download and stream video content, WMV support, video feeds
Music and audio playback

* Nokia Nseries digital music player
- Playlists
- 8-band graphical equaliser
- selection by artist, composers, album and genre
album graphics display and audio visualisations
bass booster, stereo widening, loudness
* Music playback file formats: .mp3, SpMidi, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
* Dedicated volume keys & immediate access to Music Player from Media Bar, dedicated music keys in the headset control unit AD-54
* Stereo FM radio
* 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
* Music Player
* Nokia Music Manager
* Nokia Music Store support
* Nokia Podcasting support
* Ring tones: 3D stereo ring tones, 64-tone polyphonic, mp3 & video ring tones (3 videos and 9 mp3 songs built-in)
* Integrated stereo speakers with surround sound (crystal clear hi-fi sound quality with dedicated audio chip)

Software platform and user interface

* S60 5th edition
* Symbian OS version 9.4
* Active standby
* Media Bar
* Contacts bar

Sales package contents

* 5800 XpressMusic with pen stylus
* Battery (BL-5J)
* High Efficiency Charger (AC-8)
* Music Headset (HS-45, AD-54)
* Video-out Cable (CA-75U)
* Connectivity Cable (CA-101)
* 8 GB microSDHC card (MU-43)
* Carrying Case (CP-305)
* Stand (DT-29)
* Stylus plectrum in wrist strap (CP-306)
* Extra pen stylus
* User guide and Quick guide
* Mini DVD

I would say this is a decent competitor to existing touch screen phones. Things I liked in the list of specs is built in GPS with Nokia Maps, WiFi and large 3.2″ screen with 3D image engine. I wonder how much is this device going to be…

To get it free you will need to sign up for 18 months contract, at least on £40.50 per month (Flext 50). Since this is a multimedia handset, you would want to get a tariff which has unlimited Web’n'Walk included, which is Flext Web’n'Walk 50, which will cost you £45 per month.

If you go for lower tariffs, you can pay as much as  £250 for this handset on 18 months contract or £309.99 on 12 months contract.

You can order your Nokia N96 here.

In top 5 spots, we also have Vodafone at number 3 with EUR 24,128 billion and Spain’s Telefonica with EUR 22,550 billion.

Here is the list of top 10 most valueable European brands:

1. Nokia (EUR 38,283 bn)
2. LVMH (EUR 34,907bn)
3. Vodafone (EUR 24,128 bn)
4. Telefonica (EUR 22,550 bn)
5. Unilever (EUR21,638 bn)
6. Mercedes-Benz (EUR 21,359 bn)
7. BMW Group (EUR 20,061 bn)
8. RBS Group (EUR 19,135 bn)
9. France Telecom Group (EUR 19,123 bn)
10. Deutsche Bank (EUR 18,172 bn)

For more information see http://study.eurobrand.cc

Owners of Nokia handsets enabled with this service will be able to download unlimited songs from Nokia Music Store catalogue during first year. Songs from a range of great artists – past, present and future – will be offered to subscribers for a one-off cost and to make the service even more attractive, the downloaded tracks can be kept on the users handset or PC forever – for no additional fee.

The Nokia 5310, will be available with the unique Comes With Music service for a one-off cost exclusively from over 805 Carphone Warehouse stores and online. Furthermore, the handset will also be available with eight colour variants, exclusively at The Carphone Warehouse, ensuring that all customers are catered for.

Music catalogue consists of artists that record with Warner Music, Universal Music Group International and Sony BMG Entertainment.

Via 24-7pressrelease.