5530 Xpress music pre-orders being taken by Nokia USA

Let’s face it. Things aren’t going too well for Nokia as of late when it comes to smartphones in the US. The N97 could very well have been released in ‘97, the full-touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic is something we’d much rather not touch again and the E72 doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell at pulling the suits away from their ‘Berrys. Most of the blame can be directed toward an unimaginative OS and an utter lack of effective marketing but the easiest way to sum it up is that Nokia simply isn’t serving out what people here in the US are ordering up. Case in point, the 5530 XpressMusic. Sibling to the 5800 XpressMusic, the 5530 XM is pretty much a carbon copy of the 5800 XM save for the lack of 3G and an overall smaller footprint. On pre-order now from Nokia USA, it’ll run you $289.99 (which includes a free mini speaker) — a whole $10 less than the 5800 XM from Amazon. It doesn’t make any sense to us and is likely going to do nothing but turn more Americans away from Nokia, but come on now. It’s new, people. New! We’ll revisit it again once the early adopter tax is shed and we’re looking at an unlocked full touchscreen smartphone in the mid-$200 range, but we highly doubt it would sell well here in the US even at sub-$200 levels. Plain and simple; it was old news before it was even news.