James Delahunty
16 Jun 2005 15:36
Napster, one of the Internet's biggest online music download services has inked a deal with Ericsson to provide a mobile music service. The service will supply over-the-air downloads as well as downloads through a PC. It will offer subscription services as well as one-off download sales. This comes 11 months after Apple announced it had a deal with Motorola to make an iTunes phone that could store and play music bought from the iTunes music store.
The iTunes phone is still unreleased however and has failed to show up at many public events. The idea of the iTunes phone is not a favoured one in the mobile phone industry however because it relies on downloads made with a computer, not downloads made through a mobile network. However Napster and Ericsson have assured networks that their business model "accommodates mobile operator participation in all revenue streams".
Napster's music store uses Windows DRM technology but the Ericsson service will support other DRM schemes to "work on mobile phones from all major manufacturers that support content protected by digital rights management". This deal is anther step towards mobile phones becoming multimedia handsets as well as telecommunications devices.
Source:
The Register