Nokia Intros New XpressMusic Phone, Updates E71 Business Phone

Nokia is continuing to push its XpressMusic handsets, introducing the new touchscreen-powered 5530 XpressMusic, plus the E72 business phone.

Finland’s Nokia is continuing to push its XpressMusic platform forward, based on the idea that when people buy a phone they also buy a time-limited license to all the music they can download…and when the license expires, they can just buy a new phone. The latest addition is the 5530 XpressMusic, which also hooks in to social networking services like Facebook and MySpace and offers 4 GB of onboard memory for music and media storage.

The XpressMusic 5530 sports a 2.9-inch touchscreen display, integrated Wi-Fi, and features a new “people carousel” that lets users quickly flip through thumbnails of up to 20 close friends to reach them via email, phone, or social media updates. The phone also features a pop-up Media Bar so users can pull up photos, music, online resources from Ovi, Flickr, VOX, and other services with just one touch. Nokia expects to introduce the 5530 XpressMusic in the third quarter of 2009 at pre-subsidy price of €199; no word on when the GSM/EDGE phone it might make it to North America…although Nokia is still working on bringing XpressMusic over the Atlantic.

Nokia also introduced a successor to its popular E71 business phone in the form of the Nokia E72; like its predecessor, the E72 sports a full QWERTY keyboard; unlike its predecessor, the E72 sports a 5 megapixel camera and users will be able to IM directly from the home screen…at least via Nokia Messaging. (Other IM apps will be “a few steps” away.) The E72 also features an email interface lifted from the Nokia E75, and a new optical navigation key so users can more quickly navigate content and menus. the E72 also includes assisted GPS, and can hook in with a wide variety of email services, including Nokia Messaging as well as Exchange, Lotus Notes, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and more. Nokia expects to ship the E72 in the third quarter of 2009 at a suggested price of €350 before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia also introduced the Nokia 3710 Fold, a new flip phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, microSD storage, and the ability to hook into Nokia services like Ovi and Nokia Maps, along with a simplified interface designed to simplify common actions without sacrificing functionality. The 3710 Fold should be available by the fourth quarter at a suggested pre-subsidy price of €140.