Apple iPhone’s imminent launch in Europe has put the fear of God in, well, just about everyone in the global cellphone market. Nokia, which sells a third of all cell phones in the world, sought to secure its lead in the market with the debut of a flurry of new devices — including the 8GB slider phone, the N-81, (at left), and a new wireless music service to go with it.  Also, Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the company would start to sell touch screen phones — Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iconic iPhone handsets — using its popular S60 software next year.

Too little too late against Apple’s ironclad grip on the digital entertainment market? At least one analyst thought so.

Forrester analysts Charles Golvin and Paul Jackson comment:

This service isn’t sufficiently differentiated to make a major impact in terms of convincing consumers to either start using legal download services, or wean them off of Apple’s service and dedicated music devices. We further don’t believe that the phone will be the interface that consumers will opt for to purchase music (or as Nokia suggests, entirely replace dedicated music players). The PC is the best experience and mobile will be for isolated impulse buys — and even then this use model requires operators to offer flat rate data access services on high speed networks, and requires consumers to be willing to pay for them.

Nokia also mounted its third attempt at reviving the N-Gage games label with a new global gaming service. The move was met with a moderately positive reception.
Jupiter’s Michael Gartenberg on his blog: (Typos below; give the guy a break, he blogged from his phone. Words in parenthesis are ours.)

The re-vamped strategy makes sense. the goal is no longer to take on nintendo or sony in the mobile console spce (space) but to up the level of java or brew titles and fit that mid tier for gaming. titles are priced between DS games and low emd (end) java games. there’s also a commuinty aspect and trial service that makes it easy to try games beforr  (before) buying. overall, a good strategy for casual mobile games but potentially inhibited by the costs of the handsets that are n-gage compatible.

(Nokia press)
(Engadget)
(Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

• FTC clears News Corp.-Dow Jones deal. Dow Jones & Co. and News Corp. said Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission has given antitrust clearance for News Corp.’s $5 billion acquisition of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher. (BusinessWeek)
• NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said on Tuesday that any troubles in the U.S. economy have yet to carry over to advertising, and there was still “incredibly strong” demand for TV commercial time. (Reuters)
• Apple Inc. will use a special media event on September 5th to introduce a new array of digital media offerings, according to digital invitations issued to analysts and members of the media Tuesday afternoon. New iPods. (AppleInsider)
• Several European phone companies plan to announce significant expansions of Internet protocol television, or IPTV, this week, led by Deutsche Telekom, which is spending 3 billion euros and has linked about 4 in 10 German households to broadband TV. (CNet)
• Fall films brings Oscar buzz to Hollywood. “3:10 to Yuma” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” aspire to be frontrunners. (Reuters)