Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic to mature markets: see you in 2009

The Foundations said it best in their 1968 classic, but seriously, why let us down like this? Nokia didn't mind busting out a litany of press shots and all the specifications one could need to get amped up about the 5800 XpressMusic, but it obviously has something holding it back from launching in "mature markets" before 2009. In an announcement that's just as disappointing to the suits in Espoo as it is to those in North America and Down Under (just to name a couple), we've now learned that the touchscreen-dominated handset will only be available in seven countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe before 2009 dawns. Even worse? Not knowing how deep into next year we'll have to wait for this thing here in the US of A. Catch our feelings spelled out in video form after the break.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2008 6:39PM]

Me to Nokia: see you never. I'm done with Nokia and their cold shoulder policies for North America. They treat us like second class market so I refuse to buy their products anymore and switching to Android.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2008 10:42PM]

Its not Nokia's fault the operators here are terrible. I'm surprised they throw us any bones at all.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2008 5:51PM]

WEAK!!! That is so weak. By then, they are guaranteeing themselves to enter into an even more saturated market... good move. Can't compete Nokia?! Come on...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2008 10:12PM]

Meh. I was planning on getting a Nokia, but went to an at&t store on Sat. and fell in love with an iPhone. Needless to say, I walked out with a 16 gig model.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2008 11:26PM]

Ireally want this phone bad. It will mess up the iPhone real bad (Which lacks basic phone features like MMS, go Apple!) But we DO have unlocked E71s, and because of the ambiguousness around the US release date, I may need to settle for now. *sigh*

[Omagus Posted Oct 7th 2008 11:32AM]

I agree with AI. Nokia has been burned by Cingular/AT&T so many times that you can't really fault them for being extremely reluctant to warm up to the US. However, that doesn't explain why they're giving the same treatment to other mature markets. My guess is that Nokia figures that the phone won't compete favorably with the other touchscreen handsets out there. It'll probably sell more in emerging markets where it can be seen as a much lower cost alternative to the currently popular models.

Oh well. My interest in this phone kind of evaporated once I learned it had a resistive touchscreen. No multitouch? I'll wait for Nokia's higher end touchscreen model...which I'm sure is in its labs at this very moment.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 7th 2008 4:03PM]

tisk tisk nokia..i'm ashamed..:(

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 20th 2008 1:50AM]

i agree with bob ,i used to live in middle east where they had the best and always have the most exclusive updates of nokia the next day .when i came to the u.s i was surprised that nokia send them crappy old phones in the market .and i was not able to find a good quality phone till the iphone came out ....now i have the iphone but the only thing with the iphone that it's missing the phone features 1:mms 2:flash support Etc... anyway that was all nokia is so dissapointing