Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ service was highlighted in Appliance Retailer late last year. Just before the upcoming release here in Australia, UK analysts have reported struggling figures over the first few months.

‘Comes With Music’ is a service introduced by Nokia to allow owners of selected XpressMusic handsets the ability to download unlimited, free music for an entire year, straight to your phone.

The premise sounds very good and it still has a generous amount of hype surrounding its upcoming release in Australia, but it has generated lower figures than expected in the UK and manufacturers have already started to slash the price of corresponding handsets.

The service is slated for Australian release in the next 10 weeks, but is still unconfirmed from Nokia.

Kate Harper, account executive at Hausmann Communications, has stated “Comes With Music is due to launch locally before Q1 ends, but we don’t yet have details on the exact launch date or accompanying mobile phones.”

The disappointing news in the UK has been blamed on the use of older style handsets, and sales are expected to increase when the new ‘XpressMusic 5800’ model is released in the weeks to come.

Hopefully the initial UK performance won’t hamper Nokia’s efforts in the Asia-Pacific release in upcoming months.

Nokia still remains very confident that the service will take off. But the question still remains of whether it can beat the music juggernaut, Apple?