Nokia Troubled with 5800 Launch

Nokia fans have been anticipating the launch of its 5800 handset – advertised as Nokia’s best music phone to date. The 5800 XpressMusic emphasizes music and multimedia playback. The phone generally ilicited positive reviews from different tech sites.

However, it seems as if Nokia is having problems with launch of the North America model of the 5800 handset. Nokia USA has stopped selling the American version of the 5800 and is now selling the European version of 5800 as a replacement.

This is due to two major problems. First, is the phone’s earpiece speakers, which are reportedly not properly protected against moisture; and the second is the phone’s inability to find AT&T 3G network, which led to many customers returning the phone.

Nokia confirmed this weekend that many of the 5800 handsets delivered worldwide before January 2009 have a problem with the phone’s earpiece, which wasn’t properly protected from moisture ingestions. The company said that all the faulty earpieces have now been replaced with units produced by a different manufacturer. Nokia 5800 handsets bought after January 2009 should not experience this problem.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, some wireless carriers like Vodafone are waiting for a new batch of 5800s. Vodafone did not confirm whether the delay in selling more 5800 handsets is due to performing sales or the reported earpiece problem.

Nokia started shipping the 5800 model around the world in October 2008 and in January 2009 the company announced that it already sold one million handsets.