Our take...
Launching on a prepay handset through an independent retailer indicates that Nokia has yet to successfully entice the network operators to include the service on contract, unsurprising given the direct competition with the operators' own services. In addition, the Nokia 5310 is not 3G enabled meaning that all music will need to be sideloaded onto the handset, bypassing operator data download charges.

The choice to offer the handset exclusively with Carphone Warehouse, the sole independent retailer of Apple's iPhone in the UK, has sparked debate about Nokia competing with Apple in light of the prepay iPhone release mid September. However, it seems likely that the two services will appeal to different types of user. The cost of the prepaid iPhone is £349 and the current cost of the prepaid Nokia 5310 ranges between £69 and £80 with Carphone Warehouse. Although the price is expected to increase with CWM, Screen Digest predicts that the Nokia handset will be offered at a significantly lower price than the iPhone given its more limited functionality. In terms of the music services offered, all music is free with CWM, whereas iPhone users have to pay separately for each track downloaded as part of the iTunes service. On the other hand the catalogue size offered by Nokia is currently a quarter that of iTunes and entirely DRM wrapped whereas approximately a third of the iTunes catalogue is DRM free. As such CWM is a cheaper, lower spec music phone package and could carve a niche in the low end, younger market, unable to afford the high cost of Apple's iPhone. The introduction of handsets with bundled content such as this could also help to revive low to mid range handset sales in Europe.