The Short Names

Forbes says a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) spokeswoman told it a U.S. launch for its unlimited bundled music program Comes With Music now won’t come until 2010 – although the magazine fails to quote her as such.

Forbes is right when it says Nokia hoped to launch in 2009. As we reported from MidemNet in February, entertainment and communities EVP Tero Ojanpera said: “2009, we are looking at the US also, also we will be looking at Latin America – 2009 will be the whole world, more or less, the timing depends on a number of factors but that’s the plan.”

Comes With Music bundles an unlimited number of Nokia Music Store downloads with a handset by bundling a fee in with the phone cost. In April, seven months after Nokia announced the program, MusicAlly reported Nokia had just 23,000 users in the flagship UK territory. It counts only Orange as a carrier partner.

The scheme has rolled out to several other countries, but Nokia has been hampered in the U.S. by poor reception for its handset; in theory, Nokia may also have met a lukewarm reception from labels to the idea there. And Comes With Music is hampered by DRM conditions just at the time other music services consider offering unlimited, DRM-less MP3s.