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Two closely entwined Nokia products - the Tube, its first touchscreen handset, and the Comes With Musicn unlimited download service- have been promised and analyzed for so long that they seemed to be already in the market, but in fact they were launched at last yesterday in London.

The Tube has been hotly anticipated as Nokia's first foray into the touchscreen format pioneered by LG and Apple, though the Finnish vendor has played down the significance of the interface, especially outside the US - but accepted it needs the format du jour to improve its chances of a US carrier deal or significant direct sales. The vendor was hazy on pricing and shipping dates, but the retail price should be €279 - reasonably competitive with similar phones and the iPhone, though not aggressively so, although Nokia's scale means it will have room to move on pricing. It is following its usual approach of keeping a decent margin and positioning its handset by desirability of the associated services and features - in this case music and video capabilities and the Comes With Music offering, not price alone. On the other hand, it has to keep a clear price differential with the more highly specified N96 'superphone'.

Nokia said the flagship service in its ambitious bid to become a web services and content portal player - and so support more sales of its increasingly web/media-focused midrange smartphones - "looks set to mash up the world of mobile music".

Comes With Music gives users a year of unlimited, free music that they can keep even once the 12-month subscription period ends. The move will be Nokia's biggest push into the internet services market to date and will challenge Apple's dominance of the digital music market, as well as Sony Ericsson's PlayNow, which is tied into its powerfully branded Walkman phones.

First reviewers of the Tube generally liked its sleek design and interface better than that of the G1, but doubted it would have the killer quality to make a real breakthrough in the weak US market, unless it attracts a carrier deal - withT-Mobile the only likely candidate, given AT&T's hostility to Nokia. However, T-Mobile might see it as conflicting with its G1 launch, while the other US majors run CDMA.

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