Nokia's got a plan to sway a few potential iPhone buyers and it's called the 5800 Xpressmusic.



With touch screen technology, the 5800 XpressMusic introduces the Media Bar, a drop down menu for access to music and entertainment such as tracks, videos and photos. With a single touch, users can track a digital history of recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates.

The 3.2-inch widescreen display offers up a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording. It features a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. Additional features include a virtual alphanumeric keypad, a virtual computer-style QWERTY keyboard, a pen stylus and a plectrum.

The music player includes a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory for up to 6000 tracks, a 3.5mm jack and support for digital music formats and built-in surround sound speakers.

The Finnish cell phone maker hopes to tap looking for a feature set and slim appeal of the iPhone without the steep hardware cost and will sell the 5800 XpressMusic for $395 or free from operators when signing up for a contract.

What I don't understand is if Nokia and HTC and LG had all this technology to do touch phones and cools products like this.. why didn't they do it before ? What did they have to wait for Apple, a novice to this market, to come along and show them how it is done... ? That is a mystery for me.