Nokia's touchscreens The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is not the first
touchscreen device in Nokia's range of handsets. In 2004, the
Nokia 7700 was announced, a
Series 90 Symbian device that was cancelled before it reached the market. This was followed by the
Nokia 7710 which was an upgraded version of the 7700 and became available during 2005. Nokia also produced the
UIQ-based Nokia 6708 phone in 2005, but this was not an in-house development and was bought in from Taiwanese manufacturer
BenQ, and it targeted the Chinese market. Nokia have also produced a range of
Maemo-based
tablets called the
Nokia Internet tablet range, which have a touchscreen interface but are not mobile phones by themselves. The 5800 is, however, Nokia's first
S60-based Symbian touchscreen device and hence their first mainstream touchscreen handset. Nokia's rivals
LG and
Samsung had both also launched consumer-oriented touchscreen handsets during this time.
Development and leaks At Nokia's Go Play event in London on 27 August 2007 — where the
Nokia N81, N81 8GB,
Nokia N95 8GB,
Ovi,
Nokia Music Store and
N-Gage 2.0 were unveiled, — the company's CEO
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo also said that a touchscreen-operated smartphone based on the S60 platform will be launched in the following year. The event also showcased a touch-operated concept running S60 software. The device presented in the video was remarkably iPhone-like, which
Engadget referred to as the "Nokia iPhone". It was later explained that the concept was regarding the touch software and not the hardware device mock-up. At the Symbian Smartphone Show in October 2007, Nokia announced and showed an S60 touch interface, stating that it will be released in 2008. It was demoed during the 2008
Mobile World Congress. Many rumours started circling around regarding Nokia's first touchscreen S60 smartphone. On 8 April 2008, images of this device and running an early touch-based interface were
leaked and soon a Nokia official confirmed that the company is working on such a device, codenamed "Tube". Nokia soon also bought out
Symbian Software and made the operating system
open source with its partners under the
Symbian Foundation. This also led to S60 being adopted as the sole user interface and the discontinuation of
UIQ. The "Tube" was widely leaked and discussed about during the year.
Unveiling, release, and issues Nokia unveiled the "Tube" 5800 XpressMusic at the Remix event held at
Koko in London on 2 October 2008. Alongside the handset, the company also announced the
Comes With Music service and a number of stereo wireless
Bluetooth headphones. The device began shipping on 27 November 2008 retailing for €279 before taxes and initially available in markets including Finland, Spain, Russia, India and Hong Kong. It launched in other territories in 2009, including in North America in March 2009. Nokia also expanded the Nokia Music Store availability globally to complement the release of the 5800. In early February 2009 the website
Mobile-Review.com, which was initially very enthusiastic about the handset, published its research and concluded that the Nokia 5800 had a design flaw. Specifically, when phones were used on a daily basis, their earpieces, produced for Nokia under contract by a third party, would cease to function in a very short time. Repairs performed under warranty would only temporarily fix the problem. The defect was found to be in the earpiece design. Nokia's public relations department had admitted that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic contained this design defect. According to Nokia, they switched to another earpiece manufacturer, so all 5800's produced during February 2009 or later should be free from defect, with previously produced earpieces eligible for free warranty repair. New earpiece parts have also been supplied to Nokia service centres and future phone repairs should permanently fix the defect. Many early units also had faulty speakers. Nokia acknowledged this issue in January 2009. Pitbull's "
Shut It Down", The Pussycat Dolls' "
Jai Ho!" and "
Hush Hush", Katy Perry's "
Waking Up in Vegas" and Cobra Starship's "
Good Girls Go Bad". ==Reception==