Nokia today denied claims that it has done a deal with Apple to put iTunes on its N91 media phone.

According to Finnish newspaper Taloussanomat, today Nokia is to embrace Apple's online music service.

His comment was supported by Nokia spokesman Kari Tuutti, cited by Reuters. Tuutti claimed Nokia had seen iTunes-like applications running on phones unnamed research labs.

However, he scotched the newspaper's central claim that Apple and Nokia are partners.

"There is no commercial agreement between Nokia and Apple to integrate iTunes into the N-series devices," he said.

The N91, due to ship around the world in Q4, contains a 4GB hard drive. Nokia is pitching the 3G handset specifically as a music phone - the device will support a broad array of formats, including MP3; the iTunes' favoured AAC; AAC+, which is the likely format for future carrier-operated music download services; WMA; WAV; and Real Audio 8.

The handset is based on the Symbian OS and Nokia's Series 60 user interface. As Tuutti noted, that makes it easy for any company, "including Apple if they wish", to develop music software for the phone. Apple has extensive experience of the Series 60 platform, for which it has long supported with its iSync data-synchronisation software.

Motorola is preparing to ship its iTunes-enabled phone in September, but it could launch this month, it says. ®

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