Posted by Jonny on November 17th, 2008 under Apple, News, Opinion
Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ may already have generated its first fan-site, but questions remain on the future for mobile music services - surely the usability factor doesn’t yet match desktop alternatives, such as iTunes?
Apple does offer the iTunes Store for WiFi, and has before been rumoured to hold plans for its very own mobile music service, though this may prove less successful if aimed at iPhone users alone. As an incremental addition, iTunes for WiFi offers something like a mobile experience.
That no one beyond Nokia appears yet to be aiming to offer a full package (hot potato) mobile music service, incumbents must surely be mulling the latest figures to come out of Japan.
Music Ally will this month pitch two world class speakers against each other in a unique mock-trial on the promise of the mobile music industry.
Titled “Mobile Music in the Dock” the event promises to put the claims made by the mobile industry about mobile music on trial. Speakers will be Mobile Entertainment Forum chairman Ralph Simon and Sibelius Software’s Jeremy Silver acting as defence and prosecution respectively.
Posted by Jonny on October 31st, 2008 under Apple, News
While Napster seems down - shedding cash consistently while subscription services continue to fail to ignite consumer market share, the company has no intention to stop slugging it out in its attempt to consolidate its business.
Latest news sees Napster Mobile make its service available to 13 million AT&T Wireless customers in the US.
The service is now available on more than 25 AT&T smartphones and handsets, including BlackBerry Bold, AT&T Quickfire, Pantech Matrix and Samsung Propel.
The expansion of the supported handsets was made possible by less restrictive digital rights management (DRM) requirements from the labels and Napster’s adoption of more flexible technology.
Shazam has reached yet another deal with a mobile phone company, this time introducing its music discovery solutions to Vodafone Germany customers.
The new deal - announced at 2pm (UK time) at Popkomm, Berlin, Germany – means Shazam is expanding its partnership with Vodafone Germany, which will now offer Shazam’s innovative music discovery application alongside the already popular service.
The new application, MusicFinder with Shazam, allows users to capture music instantly on their handsets, share their new discoveries with friends, and purchase music products through the Vodafone Music Store.
Vodafone Germany customers will be able to download the MusicFinder application direct to their handset from the Vodafone Live! Portal and get a 30 day free trial after which they can subscribe to get unlimited usage for just €2.99 per month. Customers can use the MusicFinder with Shazam application as well as the IVR service for just 49 euro cents per use. Read the rest of this entry »
The service effectively pits the world’s largest mobile phone maker in a direct challenge with Apple’s iPhone (family?) and its iTunes store. Within the purchase price of a handset, Nokia is offering customers all-you-can-eat access to music - though there are a few caveats to the deal.
On plans to extend the service to the UK, Tero Ojanpera, head of entertainment business at Nokia said in a statement: “In the United States we will launch next year”.
A move to introduce ‘Comes With Music’ into the US makes some sense in terms of Nokia’s attempt to broaden its grip on the mobile market there.
The move could face challenges: The US digital music market is far more advanced, partially because labels have been faster to reach deals with new technology services there. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jonny on September 30th, 2008 under News
Shazam has today announced that its service can be fully integrated with operators’ music stores to allow users to download tracks directly to their handsets, with T-Mobile the first operator to integrate Shazam with its own music store on Samsung’s new music phones.
The Shazam service is now embedded into Samsung mobiles, including the latest Beatb (model: M3510) and the Beats (model: M3200) mobiles. The Shazam application on Samsung’s new phones allows users to seamlessly discover music simply by holding their mobiles to the tune for just a few seconds and then go on to buy identified tracks through operators’ dedicated music stores.
Posted by Jonny on September 27th, 2008 under Apple, News
Nokia will unveil its very own iPhone-killer next week, a touchscreen device until now called the ‘Tube’.
Following up last week’s introduction of the first Android-powered touchscreen device, HTC’s Dream, the Nokia gadget is the first device from the manufacturer to employ this technology.
Nokia will introduce its new handset in London next week on October 2. While the company has declined to comment on the launch, a Gartner analyst observed the company continues to lag behind Apple, “We have been wating for the market leader to respond to Apple’s iPhone for a year and a half now.”
The company does have a good track record, the same report explains, observing that while Nokia was late to introduce devices capable of accessing 3G network, the devices it did offer quickly achieved wide market acceptance. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jonny on September 24th, 2008 under News
Sony Ericsson has today confirmed plans to offer its very own unlimited music download service, launching the service - PlayNow plus - in Sweden this year, with an international roll-out penned for 2009.
Like Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ service (which Nokia chiefs take pains to say will cost more money than just the handset price), Somy Ericsson’s music attempt will let users download unlimited music at a fixed rate.
The company is reaching deals with operators, under which music downloaded through the service won’t count against a users’ data plan, carriers will instead get a slice of the $15/month subs fees. Read the rest of this entry »
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