These product defects which are confined to the US version, along with the fact that no American carrier has picked up the device to sell to its subscribers, calls into question Nokia’s whole strategy for trying to recapture the North American market. Nokia, if you can remember that far back, was once the largest selling cellphone maker in the US, but its since slid to fifth place, with its share of the market dipping to 8.4 percent, as of Q3 sales figures. This puts in behind Samsung, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), LG (SEO: 066570) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM). Analysts have noted that both Samsung and LG have been able to make quick inroads into the US market by working very closely with operators. Moreover, judging from the 1 million in sales of the device in Europe where it has operator support, it looks as if the 5800 Xpress music had the potential to be a hit with US customers. Could US operators be afraid that the phone, which allows users to easily connect to several online music stores (including to its own Nokia Music Store where the online store operates) could hurt sales of their own music offerings? If that’s the case, Nokia’s going to find the US even harder to crack as it begins to ramp up its more of its internet services offerings, and where operators are even more powerful than in Europe, where their influence tends to get spread across various countries.

Meanwhile, news that defects have surfaced in the 5800 XpressMusic phone seems to be just one of many problems surfacing about flawed mobiles these days. In the past week, we’ve had news of Blackberry handsets overheating in Japan, and the LG Spyder 830 being recalled for being unable to handle 911 calls. Perhaps then RIM CEO Jim Balsillie was right when he said after the Blackberry Storm launched with a number of issues that buggy phones were the “new reality” as companies tried to crank out large volumes of complex smartphones in tighter and tighter time frames.

UPDATED: Nokia confirmed that some 5800 XpressMusic customers had reported difficulties connecting with the local 3G network . Nokia says they temporarily suspended sales to identify the root cause and resolution, which they found to be “an isolated situation related to a configuration change in the North American variant.” They have now fixed the problem and will resume sales shortly.

If consumers want longevity, they might want to stick to the old basics. UK tabloid Thesun.co.uk is reporting that a Nokia 1600 that ended up in the belly of a cod is still working after it was dried out. Businessman Andrew Cheatle assumed it was lost for good when he accidentally dropped it at sea where it was swallowed by a four foot cod. The fish was later caught by a fisherman who then found the phone when he was gutting the cod. He managed to get the phone back to Cheatle by putting the SIM into his own phone, but Cheatle claims that the phone still works, though he has since swapped out the circuit board.