LOS ANGELES -- Nokia purchased Seattle-based Loudeye recently to become a "global leader in mobile music experiences," according to a research report issued by ABI Research today.

I've tried to track down some more information this week on what Nokia is going to do with Loudeye, and I haven't been able to turn up too many details. Nokia's official line is that the company is not ready to talk about it, but could be in the next month or so.

Already Nokia claims to be the largest MP3 maker in the world because a majority of its phones have music players, and it sells more phones in the world than Dell sells computers.

Jake Saunders, ABI Research's research director, said: "To become a global leader in mobile music, Nokia needs to move onto the hallowed turf dominated by Apple's iPod."

That's why, the report said, that Nokia bought Loudeye.

Principal analyst Stuart Carlaw said: "The Loudeye acquisition is intended to assist Nokia in strengthening its position in the music market's premium, heavy duty user categories: consumers who typically purchase multi-purpose and dedicated music player mobile devices."

ABI Research estimates that these two categories will represent more than 125 million annual shipments by 2009.

Check back in about a month for more information.