Nokia takes on iTunes with download store

The Nokia Music Store will be launched later this year, and will offer mobile phone users access to millions of tracks with prices starting at 68p per track. iTunes tracks currently cost 79p.

The service will let users download the tracks from their computers or directly onto their handsets providing they have new upgraded handsets.

To co-incide with the announcement, Nokia has launched four new handsets, including the N81, which can hold up to 6,000 tracks and costs £291.

The handset features a touch-sensitive “navi-wheel”, it is likely to be seen as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

Asked whether the device’s design was a copy of the iPhone, Nokia’s head of multimedia, Anssi Vanjoki, said: “If there is something good in the world we copy with pride, if it is called copying.”