Nokia says that 150 playlists “that are curated and kept up to date by an expert team of US based musicologists” are available, comprised of a wide variety of music genres, from classical to house dance music. Additionally, playlists created by Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga and Rihanna, as well as other well-known performers, are available. But Nokia Music isn’t just made up of the service-provided playlists. Personalized playlists can be built using the “create” function, which access millions of songs in Nokia’s music library.

The free service should appeal to music lovers that own a Lumia device in the US. Nokia Music doesn’t contain any advertising, so music will be uninterrupted. And the playlists can be accessed offline, so tunes can be enjoyed without using up precious mobile broadband. A “gig finder” feature also offers information on local music events and the app ties in to Nokia’s digital music store where users can purchase MP3 songs or albums.

Nokia Music is likely the first of many new announcements coming from the company. Tomorrow, Nokia has a scheduled press event in New York City, where it is widely expected to debut handsets designed to run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.

Nokia’s app will compete with Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle apps for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows in France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

The Reading app, first announced with the new Lumias at Mobile World Congress in February, will be available for the Lumia 900, 800, 710 and 610 this week. Nokia says, “While e-books are becoming a common sight in countries like the US and the UK, they are still in their infancy – or basically unavailable – in many parts of the world. And this is where the strength of Nokia Reading lies: in local language e-reading content.”

The company doesn’t specify how many titles are available but says there are “a wide range of local titles, as well as a large collection of English titles popular across the world.”

You could argue that 2011 was the year of Android, given that the number of Android devices activated daily doubled from 350,000 to 700,000 between April and December 2011. Or perhaps it was the year of the mobile operating system war, with Nokia’s strategic shift to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Phone OS. So what are the trends that will shape the mobile landscape in 2012? Let’s look at them in four categories: business, ecosystem, consumer expectations, and technology.

Mobile Is A Key Business Enabler

Professionals who hope to increase the sophistication of their mobile strategies will need to:

»  Develop a scalable approach to delivering mobile services. Organizations will need a strategic approach to building and spreading institutional knowledge as well as governance for the development of mobile services. It will be increasingly important to define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of mobile initiatives.

»  Craft a mobile strategy that extends beyond phones. The emergence of tablets in particular will require a different approach than smartphones.

»  Differentiate on the delivery rather than the content of mobile services. In 2012, “how” mobile services are delivered will differentiate them–not what they offer.

Success In The Mobile Ecosystems Will Elude Incumbents And Embrace Newcomers

Expect incumbents across a range of industries to look to hold or gain share as mobile revolutionizes their business. Key 2012 mobile ecosystem trends include:

»  The emergence of mobile digital wallets and their ability to go beyond payment. New technologies are converting mobile handsets into digital wallets that combine not just payments but also receipts, vouchers, and loyalty schemes. As well as gaining the convenience of using the phone for payment, consumers will benefit from post-transaction elements such as location-based coupons and enhanced product information at the point of sale.

»  The continuation of the smartphone OS bloodbath. If you need a native application, iOS and Android are “must-haves.” However, there is still room for a third major OS platform. Windows Phone is a good candidate, but Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft will have to execute perfectly to stay in the game longer term, even with a larger portfolio of devices in 2012.

»  Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Facebook becoming disruptive distribution forces. We don’t expect Amazon to succeed in replicating its Kindle approach in the crowded smartphone space–nor do we expect Facebook to invest in hardware. While their respective roles in the mobile space are still unclear, they could become disruptive forces that enable the distribution of products and services in new ways. Think about the use of social recommendations and personalization tools to facilitate the discovery of mobile services.

Consumer Expectations Will Be Both High And Conflicted

Professionals developing mobile services should take the following into account:

»  Consumers will expect more contextual experiences. Phones will have the ability to collect a phenomenal amount of information about a consumer. They will offer new product and service opportunities, both on their own and when combined with others. Mobile phones will be the hub of consumer interaction–not only with other people but also with other services and machines, such as TVs, cars, and even medical devices like heart monitors. Physical products will increasingly ship with companion mobile services.

»  But they will also worry about privacy and security. When the press realized that several players were tracking user location to improve services, there was a public outcry. Location is the least of it. The mobile phone will know everything about an individual. Consumer concerns here will center on: 1) the commercial use of this information, and 2) security issues, given the increased use of mobile devices for banking and buying.

Emerging Technologies Need Standards And Scale To Succeed

New native technologies will enable new services, products, and navigation techniques that are unimaginable on the PC. Professionals excited by these new technologies should note that:

»  HTML5 has made phenomenal progress, but it is not a panacea. Adobe’s abandonment of Flash at the end of last year and support for HTML5 from heavyweights like Apple, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Amazon, and Microsoft are elevating HTML5′s potential as a solution. Two key things continue to hold back this potential cure-all: 1) the experience and performance differences between native and web applications are noticeable, and 2) realizing the full benefits of HTML5 requires device- and OS-specific optimization.

»  Near Field Communications (NFC) will fail to live up to the hype. We expect dozens of millions of NFC devices to ship from a wide variety of device makers – including, eventually, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). We expect events like the 2012 Olympic Games in London to serve as marketing catalysts and help showcase the numerous potential uses of the technology. However, a poor out-of-the-box experience, minimal consumer education, and the lack of NFC infrastructure will inhibit growth.

»  The cloud is still too congested or too thin. The consumerization of the enterprise IT notion of cloud computing is already a reality, with services such as Dropbox, Spotify, and Apple’s iCloud. The cloud will grow in importance, enabling cross-device services, but will be inhibited by limited network capacity and congestion.

Thomas Husson is a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research serving Consumer Product Strategy professionals. Follow him on Twitter at @Thomas_Husson

This article originally appeared in Forrester.

The plants will remain operational now for “smartphone product customization.” The news comes amidst unconfirmed reports that the company is planning to curtail its Symbian lineup after the release of the next model.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) says that the transfer will result in the loss of 4,000 jobs in total, and the reductions will take place through the end of 2012.

Nokia does not outline how much the move to Asia will mean in terms of money saved, but this is a decision that has been some time in the making: these were plants that were spared in the last round of cuts under CEO Stephen Elop.

Since then, Nokia has reported yet more declines in its smartphone shipments, mainly around its legacy Symbian platform. The company is now gradually moving to making more of its smartphone portfolio based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

Now, Nokia says that the move is being made to put the manufacturing bases closer to where the different components are being made for those smartphones. That is a move we have seen from many other companies — and was the subject of a series of stories recently concerning Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in China and the role of Foxconn in that business.

The move to make these plants focused on customization, meanwhile, points to some focus that Nokia does seem to maintain on its software and services for its devices — a crucial part of the company’s differentiation as it moves more and more to a platform being used by its competitors as well. Others that make Windows Phone devices include Samsung and HTC.

The news comes amidst other reports about Nokia that claim the company is planning to curtail its Symbian lineup after the next model comes out.

Symbian is gradually being phased out for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, but Nokia had originally said it would support the OS until 2016, and that could still be the case even if it stopped making devices based on it. Nokia transferred the operation of Symbian to Accenture last year.

A spokesperson from Nokia told paidContent that the article was “speculative at best” and would not comment on device rumor or speculation:

“As we have previously said Symbian continues to be an important part of our portfolio and going forward it will play a more focused role as we accelerate our transition to Windows Phone,” he said. “We remain fully committed to the platform through 2016, which means on-going software support as we go forward.”

The company is currently rolling out an update to Symbian, Belle, and the devices remain popular in the Middle East, Russia and India, even as they have lost out to Android-based devices, Apple’s iPhone and even RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) in other markets.

StatCounter’s figure, which does not include tablet usage, is still nearly double the mobile figure from 2010, when mobile devices accounted for 4.3 percent of internet usage. In 2009, mobiles accounted for only 1.6 percent of visits. It also comes as internet access via desktop PCs appears to be on the wane:

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Mobile vs. Desktop Market Share

Yet even given the growth in mobile, these still-low figures also go some way to explaining why certain businesses, like mobile advertising, are still not the money spinners you would expect them to be: the usage volumes are just simply not there yet.

StatCounter also provided some numbers on which handset makers are bringing in the most internet usage country-by-country. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) — which, despite its many declines over several quarters, has managed to remain the world’s biggest smartphone maker — is the global leader in terms of internet access via mobile devices. That is partly because it is strong in those countries where users may be opting for phones instead of PCs to go online, such as China and India.

It will be interesting to see whether Nokia can hold on to that lead, both in internet usage and in smartphone leadership given its switch to Windows Phone for its smartphones — especially if you believe reports that Nokia is planning to discontinue Symbian after the development of one more device. Symbian is currently the company’s best-selling platform and although it has now been outsourced to Accenture, Nokia has said it would remain committed to it until 2016.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), which NPD earlier today noted is the most popular vendor in terms of smartphone sales in the U.S., is also leading in mobile internet usage in the U.S., as well as the UK, markets where it has also performed very strongly in terms of sales. Worldwide, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) appears to be taking a nosedive at the moment. You can see other country-specific vendor rankings in the embedded table here:

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Mobile Vendor (Beta) Market Share

Apple took 43 percent of all smartphone sales in the U.S. in Q4, according to the analysts, with its newest model, the iPhone 4S, ranking first — but with equally impressive showings from devices that are now over a year old, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. Together, the three accounted for 43 percent of all sales in the U.S.

Tellingly, the two devices rounding out the top-five are Android handsets from Samsung, underscoring the close competition between the two companies and platforms at the moment.

While NPD does not give out total unit figures, it does offer some pretty stark sales proportions to spell out just how well the devices sold comparatively. Ross Rubin, executive director at NPD, noted in a statement that the iPhone 4S outsold the iPhone 4 by 75 percent, and it also outsold the iPhone 3GS by five to one.

Together, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms accounted for 90 percent of all smartphone sales in the U.S., pointing to the immense and continuing challenge for companies like RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to find a look in to what is currently the world’s largest smartphone market.

How does this compare to sales worldwide? We have contacted NPD to get an idea of that as a point of comparison and will update this post as we learn more.

In terms of what it is that is driving users to the iPhone 4S above all others, NPD says that one feature appears to be the dulcet tones of Siri, the voice-controlled “personal assistant” as well as the fact that, with the addition of Sprint (NYSE: S) as a carrier, the iPhone 4S became the most widely-available of Apple’s phones.

Android, despite Apple’s huge gains over the quarter, is still the most-common smartphone platform, however, accounting for 48 percent of all devices. Given that those devices cover a huge range of price points they will continue to give Apple a run for its money. Indeed, when looking only at sales patterns with first-time smartphone buyers, 57 percent of them opted for Android handsets, versus 34 percent picking up iPhones. That may have also had somewhat of an impact on the average sale price for smartphones, which now stands at $143, compared to $148 a year ago.

Together, smartphones accounted for 68 percent of all sales in Q4, a huge rise on Q4 2010, when they covered 50 percent of all sales.

According to Q4 figures out from IDC, Apple is now the third-largest handset maker in the world, jumping two places from its number-five position in Q3. The reason for the rise, note the analysts, was not so much because it’s now selling cheaper, older iPhones — it is — but because of strong sales of its newest (and therefore premium-priced) iPhone 4S handset.

But it’s not just Apple that is a smartphone force, of course. The other three in the top-five rankings also make feature phones, but they are all also part of the huge push that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has made into smartphones via its Android platform. Having a feature phone and smartphone strategy is a double-threat to Nokia.

Apple’s rise still puts it at 8.7 market share — some 14 percent behind the Nokia and Samsung bracket — but it is an example of how a much the market has turned around in the last few years, that a handset maker can even be in spitting distance of the lead on the strength of a smartphone-only portfolio.

Apple saw astounding growth in Q4 and 2011 overall — 128 percent and 96 percent respectively. However, it will be worth watching whether that trend will continue in the quarters ahead amidst bigger economic factors:

IDC notes that the mobile phone market grew less in the last quarter than it has in the past two years, with vendors shipping 427.4 million units. “The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide,” writes analyst Ramon Llamas.

Ironically, that seemed to translate to a bigger-than-expected decline in cheaper feature phones than a slowdown in pricier smartphones. Despite that, IDC says that feature phone sales still accounted for the majority of handset sales in the last quarter.

Nokia — which actually saw sales of feature phones rise in the last quarter as it continued its decline in smartphones — seems catching only part of the wave that IDC describes. It is still holding on to the number-one slot, but given that its biggest driver right now is still feature phones, that leadership may well continue on its fast decline.

But if IDC’s forecast is a wave, then it is really Samsung that is the big Kahuna at the moment, with both strong feature phone and smartphone stories and reaching record levels of 90 million units overall for the quarter and more than 300 million for the year. IDC notes that fewer than 20 million units separated it from Nokia in the last quarter. Samsung earlier in 2011 already surpassed Nokia as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor, according to IDC figures.

Apple and Samsung are not the only ones benefiting from a strong smartphone offering in the top-five.

ZTE, which started to introduce smartphones into its portfolio last year and has huge ambitions in this space both on its own brand and partnering with carriers, took a big leap, the second-biggest after Apple for the year, in fact.

In contrast, LG (SEO: 066570), which has been somewhat rudderless in its smartphone strategy and equally less exciting in its feature phone offerings, saw very big declines, much bigger than Nokia’s: over 24 percent over the year compared to Nokia’s eight percent.

With ZTE just behind LG at the moment, it looks like those two might be swapping places in the quarters ahead if LG doesn’t manage to turn things around. So which should it concentrate on fixing first: smartphones or feature devices?

Instead, Samsung will be presenting it at its own-branded event, with less of a gap between the product launch and actual roll-out.

“Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012. The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product. Samsung stays committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world,” a spokesperson told paidContent, via email today.

The Android-based S II (pictured here with its best enemy, the iPhone 4S) has been one of Samsung’s best sellers since launching last year — although Samsung hasn’t given exact sales figures — and many have been anticipating the upgrade, which will apparently feature a faster processor, better camera and other enhancements.

One of the big issues with the S II, however, was that while Samsung unveiled the device at the 2011 MWC event, it didn’t launch in Europe until summer, and the U.S. several months later, in September.

Did that possibly steal some thunder from the launch? As smartphone competition hots up — including leaks of the first BlackBerry 10 “London” devices and even a new iPhone coming this year — that’s a variable that Samsung probably doesn’t want to explore again.

But while Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has pulled out of CES, and Apple has been running its own launch events for years, Samsung doesn’t seem to be bowing out of the trade show peep show altogether. There have been rumors of Samsung unveiling its first Tizen handsets — that is, the new linux OS that it is developing with Intel (NSDQ: INTC) from the ashes of MeeGo — which could point to a new direction altogether for the Korean handset maker. There are also reports of further tablets on the cards.

The report, from the English-language China Daily, says that China Telecom released a statement this week that said it was beginning “preparatory work” to launch the iPhone 4S — the first time that China Telecom would offer one of Apple’s smartphones.

China Telecom has been talking of an iPhone launch for some time now, touting Apple’s work on a CDMA-based device even before the company launched its first non-UMTS handset with Verizon last year. It seems that the big holdup has been getting the right operating licenses for the device. There are three, and they have apparently now all been secured.

If China Telecom does indeed get the device in the next month, it will make it the third CDMA operator to carry the iPhone, after Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and Sprint (NYSE: S) in the U.S.

Pricing details for the device have not been disclosed but given how iPhone-crazy the Chinese public appear to be, this will probably kick-off a price war for the device — although the carriers’ offerings will likely still come at a premium compared to the cheap knock-offs that one can buy in the country.

The race for 3G subscribers is actually quite close in China: At the moment, the only carrier with the official right to sell the iPhone on its network is China Unicom, the second-largest operator after China Mobile; China Telecom ranks third. Among those, China Unicom is the fastest-growing, thanks in part to the success of the iPhone. Among the three of them, China Mobile still has the most 3G subscribers, with 51.2 million; China Unicom has 40 million; China Telecom has 36.3 million.

The move to add China Telecom as a carrier partner will also make a big difference to Apple’s exposure in the country. China Daily, citing figures from Gartner, notes that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) currently is the fourth-largest smartphone vendor in the country, trailing behind Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung and Huawei.