Comes With Music goes with a whimper

One of the most bullish proposed iTunes killers of the last couple of years, Nokia's Comes With Music, has been axed.

Surprisingly, the obtuse rebranding of the all-you-can-eat-up-to-a-limit service as Ovi Music didn't mark a sudden flourishing of take-up, and while China and a few other Eastern nations will keep the service, in most countries it's being switched off. All that's left is for Nokia to try and pretend that it's dumping Comes because, you know, they're just way too busy with something else, that's better, but you can't see what it is, because it's a secret, right, and you wouldn't understand:

"We are currently working with our partners to deliver new, innovative music services as part of the Ovi experience during 2011," said a spokesman for Nokia. "As we focus on delivering these ... we plan to cease producing Ovi Music Unlimited-edition devices at the end of the year."

Yeah, that's it. New, innovative things that aren't actually ready to announce yet, but they're going to smother this other thing now anyway. Yes.