The New Nation - Internet Edition

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Nokia will start shipping mobile phones bundled with free music from the second half of 2008 under a deal with Universal.

"Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we are making available," Nokia's vice president Anssi Vanjoki said at the company's annual event in Amsterdam last week.

The world's largest handset maker offering free music in partnership with the world's largest music company is a clear attack on Apple's digital music business through iTune.

Nokia will offer all the music of Universal free for 12 months to the buyers of its new music phones starting from the second half of 2008. Once the offer expires, consumers can keep all the music they have downloaded.

Nokia said it was in talks over similar deals with all major music companies.

"It seems the record labels have decided to bet on Nokia as a means to add competition to Apple's dominant position in digital music," Paolo Pescatore, analyst at research firm CCS Insight, told Reuters.

"With Nokia poised to sell well in excess of 120 million phones in this quarter, it's a partner that record labels can't ignore."

The company also unveiled its environment-friendly Nokia 3110 mobile phone in Amsterdam.

It is made of more than 50 percent recycled materials and comes in a small box that is made of 60 percent reused contents.

Its charger consumes 94 percent less energy and the phone also alerts once the battery is fully charged, prompting the user to unplug.