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Nokia took a few swings at Apple’s iPhone and iTunes service today, with a one-two punch consisting of its new touchscreen-based, music-centric smartphone and a free music download service.

Nokia said at an analyst and media event in London it would start selling the phone shortly, pricing it at 279 euros ($395) excluding subsidies and taxes, which it said was roughly half the price of the other main touch-screen phones on the market.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which industry watchers had believed would be called the Tube, includes a number of advancements designed to help Nokia claim a larger share of the market for high-end, feature-packed phone market — currently buzzing about both Apple’s iPhone and the recent debut of T-Mobile’s HTC G1, which is powered by the Google-backed Android operating system.

For one thing, the 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia’s first mass-market device with a touchscreen — similar to both the iPhone and the G1. It also provides a drop-down menu for easy access to music, as well as one-touch access to a Web browser and other applications. The user interface also provides a widescreen display — another feature similar to the iPhone’s and G1’s designs.