Thursday, September 28, 2006

News Corp President in Silicon News

News Corp utters mobile content battle-cry

"No one needs our content but we've made them desperately want it"

By Marguerite Reardon

Published: Thursday 14 September 2006

Chernin said today only four per cent of the 219 million mobile subscribers in the US watch mobile TV on their handsets. But if that figure increased to 20 per cent and each viewer spent just $10 per month on mobile video, mobile TV would generate nearly $5bn in revenue.

Getting every teenager in America to spend $5 per month on mobile entertainment could generate another $5bn for the industry, Chernin said. And simply increasing the number of people buying ringtones by just five per cent could generate $1bn revenue per year, he said.

Read the whole article

Monday, September 25, 2006

MoCoNews coverage of Mobile Content World

» @Mobile Content World: The Youth Focus Panel Brings It Down To Earth
Related Topics: MCW -- Permalink - Comments (1) [by jemima]

I always enjoy the youth panels - there should be plenty more of these. This panel of six was particularly diverse, including a student of latin and ancient Greek who had a seven-year-old Nokia. Their answers seemed typical enough, but wouldn't have been that encouraging to the audience. Only one our of six on the panel, Johnny, said he watched TV on his mobile (football highlights in this case) and he'd be interested in getting more. "I wouldn't want to watch a 90-minute game, just two-minute highlights. It's not incredible quality but it's alright. It's what I expect."

– The group spent between GBP20-GBP50 each month on their phones, spend between 30 minutes and 2 hours a day listening to the radio or music and all but two had pay-as-you-go and two of them had two phones. The primary interest was voice and text for all of them with cameras very popular too, but no-one was too keen on MMS and email. The only time one of them would MMS a picture was if they weren't able to Bluetooth it. And nearly all of them said they hardly watched any TV.

– No-one was very interested in downloading games. They described them as a bit gimmicky and unsophisticated. Downloading music to your phone is too expensive, they said. "Ringtones are a rip off," said Austin. "Just infra-red or Bluetooth stuff - there's no need to pay for it anymore. Create your own on your computer."

– And something that wasn't mentioned by anyone else at the event but is a massive issue: Johnny said he wouldn't want to use his phone as a music player because he's worried about ear cancer. No-one had an answer to that.


» @Mobile Content World: Priorities For TV Content
Related Topics: MCW -- Permalink - Comments (0) [by jemima]

"The mobile industry hasn't been creative enough about promoting the its content," according to Linda Summers, head of strategy at Red Bee. She said it should come down to basic marketing because it's the issue of discoverability that is huge. She said effective mobile programming will be a mix of traditional schedules and on-demand content, as well as live coverage of sports and news events. The linear TV platform still has a huge part to play in creating content for the web and mobile environment, she said. "We need to think about exploiting those established brands." She said producers need to work out how to you help people find what they want, and also how to promote content in a way that encourages users to move people through various platforms. Social nets could be vital to that distribution, she said.

– Tom Toumazis, EVP & MD for Buena Vista International Television EMEA, said that current shows like Lost translate well to mobile because there is a big range of characters and complex plots that can be exploited and expanded. He also said more work has to be done on prices and bundles, working out the value of an exclusive TV show preview on mobile, for example.

– Endemol's head of mobile TV and video at Endemol Michiel de Gooijer said mobisodes had been well received because they are exclusive, but linked to a well-known brand. The "real exciting stuff" is creating original new pure mobile projects - he referred to Endemol's ‘Get Close to Sugababes'. These daily four-minute mobisodes mixed TV footage with mobile footage filmed by the band. "The quality of footage might be inferior to TV but the personality of the footage on that format works," said de Gooijer. It's also good publicity. "There is a market for totally new brands, but you just have to see how you can link those with existing brands."


» @Mobile Content World: Mobile TV Is A Dead Duck - It's All About Video
Related Topics: MCW -- Permalink - Comments (0) [by jemima]

Another reoccurring theme: the focus is on made-for-mobile, on-demand content rather than live streaming. Jeremy Flynn, CEO of D2See, described mobile TV as a "dead duck" and said it's important to differentiate between that and mobile video.

– Stephen Smyth, Reuters VP of mobile and emerging media: "We're fooling ourselves if we think that video will become the primary reason that people use a device." He said the mobile phone is primarily about communication, so the most successful content will enable more communication through, for example, user generated content.


» @Mobile Content World: Finding The Money For Mobile TV
Related Topics: MCW -- Permalink - Comments (0) [by jemima]

@Mobile Content World: Finding The Money For Mobile TV

Clare Tavernier, SVP Interactive for Fremantle Media, said the critical issue for mobile TV is funding. Unlike the music industry, where record companies are used to funding artists until they make the money back through album sales, TV producers don't take that kind of risk. They put the ideas to broadcasters who then give them the money for the production. "Some broadcasters and mobile operators are laying down some money but this has been going on for two years. Nobody knows where to find the money."

– Phil Lawrie, VP of Turner Broadcasting:"If, as a broadcaster, you're serious about new media and mobile, you have to take risks. You have to have part of your business dedicated to trying things out and doing something new - and not reliant on hitting targets.

– Selma Turajlic, head of interactive media at Celador, overheard a conversation at the airport in which someone complained that they already pay their UK TV licence, they pay for Sky, for broadband and their mobile bill - so why would they pay extra for mobile TV? It seems that advertising is the only way forward: "We don't know what consumers tolerance to ads is, and we really need to understand that." She said there will be willingness to accept ads once people realise it will mean a cheaper or free TV service. Tavernier said advertising is already viable and that we'll start to see more creative forms of sponsorship and product placement.

– Mobile is like other TV business models in that there is a mix of advertising and fees, but where that balance settles is still in flux, said Lawrie. He estimates it will be another 12-18 months before there's enough of a critical mass of viewers to make advertising viable.


» @MCW: Mobile Industry Not Ready For Mobile TV
Related Topics: Mobile Video, MCW -- Permalink - Comments (0) [by james]

There's some interesting comments from Freemantle Media's senior vp of interactive, Claire Tavernier, about mobile TV.

"One of the apparent problems is that both sides of the industry, the mobile operators and the programme makers, are unused to gambling on content production, according to Tavernier Although she said that is beginning to change, there is little background of either parties taking that funding risk. Usually that has been the role of the broadcasters."

Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, agreed with this assessment, saying that if companies wanted to get serious about operating in new media then they not only need to generate content in a multi-platform way rather than in silos, but they "need to let those responsible for new media take creative risks, and not judge them in a numbers driven way".
Our MCW coverage is here.

Friday, September 22, 2006

PayPal micro payment rates

PayPal introduces micropayments pricing scheme

Online payments firm PayPal is cutting the processing fees it charges merchants for low cost digital purchases such as ringtones, video games, online greeting cards and music downloads.

The eBay subsidiary says its new micropayments pricing scheme is designed to enable customers to purchase low cost digital items without having to sign up for annual subscriptions or pre-funded payment accounts.

The new pricing is designed especially for payments less than $2. Under the new payments structure merchants will be able to process payments at a rate of five per cent plus five cents per transaction. PayPal says the new fees mean that merchants will pay 40% to 60% when processing low-cost payments, compared to the industry's current payment processing rates of two per cent plus 20 to 30 cents per transaction.

Peter Ashley, director of PayPal's micropayments business, comments: "With our new pricing tier for digital goods, merchants can affordably provide customers with what they are demanding - the opportunity to purchase the content they want without the need to sign up for subscriptions or pre-payments."

Merchants can opt for the new pricing structure or stay with PayPal's existing system. The firm's standard, volume-based transaction fees range from 1.9 to 2.9%, plus 30 cents per transaction.

More than 14 million US consumers purchased digital content costing less than $2 in 2004, an increase of over 10 million from 2003, according to research by micropayments firm Peppercoin and Ipsos-Insight released late last year.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

text-based businesses at Payment

Remote Order And Pay Redux

Sarmad Ali writes for today's Wall St. Journal about how SMS-based text messaging is the latest way consumers are ordering their morning coffee (and more) while in-bound to the office. Ali writes about New York-based Mobo Systems, Menlo Park-based MyTango, and UK-based Software For Restaurants and their different flavors of remote order and pay. Several years ago, a Seattle-based company named Ontain pioneered remote order and pay services (using a simple IVR approach instead of SMS-based text messaging) and conducted several trials in various markets with, among others, Starbucks. Ontain's approach failed to achieve commercial success, however, and likely was one of those cases of being ahead of its time.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Today's Payment News

PayPal: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Rich Brooks of flyte new media blogs for MaineToday.com about PayPal, its good, not so good, and "ugly" attributes. Brooks concludes that "for many people the flexibility and simplicity PayPal offers is too good not to consider. Although it may not be right for everyone, it's an inexpensive, effective tool for many."

Yodlee Announces BillPay Account Accelerator

Yodlee has announced the Yodlee BillPay Account Accelerator, a new service that "removes the hassles of canceling an existing bill pay service and setting up payments all over again with a new bill pay provider." Yodlee also says that the service "frees the 40+ million online bill payers to choose the service that’s best for them, and enables financial providers with differentiated bill pay services to capture a greater share of the fast growing bill pay market."

NFC Turns Phone Into A Wallet

David Carey reports for EE Times on how a "near-field communication device turns a Nokia cell phone into a practical tool in commercial and industrial settings for tracking assets, transmitting small data files or even auto-launching various phone-based tasks or requests" - and that "NFC technology has the ability to support what may be the most compelling application of all: a wallet in your handset."

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Reg on NFC

The NFC revolution is running late

Not going to change the world...yet

Published Tuesday 12th September 2006 13:51 GMT

Paypal again

Mowave Uses PayPal's 'Text to Buy' Service With Magazines

UK-based mobile entertainment and solutions provider Mowave has launched a new mobile service with PayPal that will allow readers of Maxim and Stuff magazines to purchase a range of products, such as subscriptions and electronics, simply by sending a text message from their mobile phone. The service, which utilizes PayPal’s new “Text to Buy” platform, marks the first time that UK publications have implemented a mobile payment system to process subscriptions or purchases of goods.



Monday, September 18, 2006

Great off-deck Payments article at Fierce Mobile Content


How A Payments Platform can Bridge the On/Off-Deck Divide

By Raomal Perera, CEO, Valista

With increasing demand for off-deck content today, content and service providers need to provide consumers with an easy-to-use solution for purchasing a variety of digital content and services through any mobile device. By 2007, the mobile premium content market is predicted to contribute to over 25 percent of global mobile revenue. With off-deck sales already dominating European mobile commerce, reaching between 40 to 70 percent of total revenues and with North America rapidly catching up, operators can no longer limit themselves to offering content through their own portal. A combined on-deck and off-deck strategy needs to be established.

Historically, operators were reluctant to provide access to off-deck content because of the fear that brands would suffer from poor customer service, unsanctioned transactions and fraud by third parties. While content providers prefer to stay off-deck, the ability to establish a presence within an operator's portal increases its access to subscribers--increasing sales, lessening credit risk and allowing for faster settlement. Operators also face business and technical challenges in managing the complexities of incorporating third party content and providing effective, cost-efficient transaction services outside of their existing billing systems.

Support for business processes such as payment processing, customer care, fulfillment, exception handling and settlement are vital components to bridge on and off deck business strategies.

Direct-to-Bill Charging
Premium SMS (PSMS) has been the primary method used by content providers to allow the purchase of off-deck content. However, the need for greater visibility into transactions is definitely a key factor in successfully providing off-deck content to subscribers. While PSMS as a billing method has been used in the past, it has limitations that are of concern to all parties involved in the transaction. The PSMS transaction process does not include credit checks, fraud protection or visibility into the transaction for all parties involved. Security and revenue leaks are of primary concern to both third-party content providers and operators. A Direct-to-Bill charging service provides a more robust payment mechanism when compared to PSMS. Using a Direct-to-Bill service that leverages a payments platform, merchants are able to charge consumers more accurately and to provide appropriate security, fraud protection and transparency into transactions for all parties.

Revenue Sharing
As the operator creates more highly innovative marketing offers, these programs have a direct impact on the revenue-sharing contracts that it holds with content providers. This creates the need for operators to have a system capable of ensuring revenue assurance and proper settlement for all parties involved in the transaction.

For example, if a new Spiderman movie comes out, a game, wallpaper, ringtone, and other ancillary products may be combined by a mobile operator to create a bundled offer. The discounting of products is implicit in their bundling into a single offer. Who bears the cost of this discount in the revenue-sharing relationship? If the operator offers a 20 percent discount on the bundle of a wallpaper, a ringtone and a game because it will drive purchases, it is important to highlight which suppliers are willing to sponsor a portion of that discount, or if sponsorship of the discount will fall solely on the operator's shoulders.

For a successful revenue sharing model, mobile operators and content providers need the freedom to define their contracts, without being constrained by a technology's ability to support them. A payment platform with revenue sharing technology will enable service providers and merchants to guarantee accurate and timely transaction settlements covering terms such as payments, payment schedules, discount sponsorships, liability for exceptions, refunds, non-payments, cancellation fees, and fraud. This ensures that the revenues and costs are distributed to the correct parties per the contractual arrangements.

Conclusion
As the premium mobile content market continues to grow, a more collaborative payment mechanism is needed, enabling content innovation and offering new opportunities for promotional programs, joint discounts, and loyalty programs. Similar to an e-commerce platform, mobile operators need to link their offerings with the generation of accounts receivable, accounts payable and settlement for multiple parties. In order to do so, operators need a comprehensive payments platform to support their on-deck and off-deck businesses. Payments platforms provide the key technology that allows operators, ISPs and aggregators to work together to successfully exploit both on-deck and off-deck markets--simultaneously. The successful and proper deployment of payments solutions helps operators, aggregators and content providers grow while still focusing on their core competencies. With the appropriate billing and payments platform, consumers will be able to access more interesting content, allowing content providers and operators to increase revenues, thereby creating a win-win-win situation for all players in the mobile content ecosystem.

Friday, September 15, 2006

UK Cash habits - Payments News

APACS Publishes The Way We Pay For UK Cash, ATMs

APACS, the UK payments association, has published a new report titled "The Way We Pay: UK Cash and Cash Machines" reporting that the number of UK cash machines has more than doubled in the past six years (from 27,379 in 1999 to 58,286 in 2005) and that Britons make the largest number of cash machine withdrawals of any country in the EU, some 2.7 billion transactions in 2005, or more than 42 per person.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Sports scenarios start to scale

Sports fans enthuse about NFC & mobile payments



The NFC/mobile payment trial at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, has been concluded. During the trial, which launched in December 2005, some 150 Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks season ticket holders with both a Chase-issued Visa credit account and a Cingular Wireless mobile telephone made payments at contactless readers supplied by ViVOtech at concession stands throughout the arena.

http://www.thewisemarketer.com/briefs/archive.asp?action=read&bid=1970

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Google comments on online payments

Google to eBay, Apple, Dell, Amazon: Ecommerce is a 'disaster'

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 10:09 am
Digg This!

DMM62006GC.jpgGoogle gives a firm thumbs down to the payment processing systems used by its strategic partners, by its key advertising clients and even by a company where the Google CEO is a member of the Board of Directors.

The Google-centric view of the world does not always reflect the world’s reality. In touting Google’s latest underperforming initiative, Google Checkout (see “Google miscalculates with Google Checkout”), at an investor Q & A in New York City yesterday, Alan Eustace, Google SVP Engineering & Research, characterized payment right now on the Web as a “disaster.”

While Google CEO Eric Schmidt is fond of saying “don’t bet against the Internet,” the company appears to be betting against payment systems widely used on the Internet.

In a fear-mongering diatribe trashing online commerce and casting doubt on consumer financial safety online, Eustace disparaged ecommerce players on the Web:

Payment right now on the Web is a disaster. Everybody who has ever tried to buy anything on the Web right now, you don’t know who the person who is selling the goods are, you have to input your credit card to a thousand different places out there, who knows what those people are doing with my credit card. It takes a long time to get through a transaction process, honestly if it took as long for you to get through the checkout at your supermarket, as it takes to do an ecommerce transaction right now you may never do it.

Especially when the prices of items are very low. Things like videos, 99 cents and things like that, you are not going to go through a full transaction cycle as a consumer to do that kind of thing.

Also there’s Privacy issues here, you may not want to give your information to all those different places.

It is striking that Google talks publicly in a manner that suggests ignorance about online commerce. Ecommerce, of course, is thriving on the Web, thanks in large part to key strategic partners to Google, to Google key advertising clients and to a company where the Google CEO sits on the Board of Directors.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Dell CEO Kevin Rollins and Apple CEO Steve Jobs are sure to take exception with Google’s declaring “Payment right now on the Web is a disaster”:

  • $5 billion ecommerce player eBay: Google strategic partner and key advertiser account
  • $9 billion ecommerce player Amazon: Google key advertiser account
  • $57 billion ecommerce player Dell: Google strategic partner and key advertiser account
  • $18 billion ecommerce player Apple: Google CEO member of Board of Directors and key advertiser account

Google’s wanton public disrespect for ecommerce facts and its ecommerce partners ought to give pause to any company and any individual that does business with Google or uses Google services.

If Google can not be trusted to accurately portray industries in which it seeks to do business (all the industries of the world), how can it be trusted to accurately account for click fraud, data records, search query streams…

Monday, September 11, 2006

UK banking: hand-held password generators

UK Two Factor Authentication

Yuba Bessaoud reports for the London Sunday Times on plans by banks in the UK to provide hand-held terminals to bank customers that will generate unique eight-digit codes on every transaction - and plans to use them for online banking access. If successful for bank access, Bessaoud reports that APACS might later extend the use of the terminals to retail websites as well.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

PayPal updates policies - AuctionByte

eBay Updates PayPal Policies
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 04, 2006

eBay's online payment service PayPal updated some of its policies taking effect this month. PayPal will no longer be offering its Money Back Guarantee program as of September 14, 2006. Under the program, purchasers of the guarantee were allowed to resell merchandise to PayPal if they were unhappy with the item. The guarantee applied to "selected physical goods transactions for less than $1,000." (http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_guarantee-outside)

PayPal is also changing its PayPal Buyer Protection, the PayPal Plus Credit Card and Buyer Credit Policy to remove the limit on the number of payouts PayPal awards to a buyer per year under the terms of the protection programs (effective September 14, 2006). The PayPal Buyer Protection program is designed to help buyers recover funds from eBay sellers who do not deliver the promised goods, or who deliver goods that are "significantly not as described" in the listing. (http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_pbp-outside)

PayPal is amending its Buyer Complaint Process for claims under eBay's Standard Purchase Protection Program for payments made in Euros. The maximum payment will now be 230 Euros, up from 200 Euros. The eBay processing cost remains 25 Euros. (http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_buyer_complaint-outside)

Finally, PayPal is amending its PayPal Plus Card Rewards program. Effective September 20, 2006, PayPal Plus cardholders will earn one reward point for every dollar spent on purchases. Reward points may be redeemed for PayPal Reward Vouchers, or for free shipping on PayPal purchases. Reward Coupons will no longer be sent automatically. Instead, cardholders will choose when to redeem their earned points.

For more information, log on to PayPal and click on "Policy Updates" in the left column.

Mobile Music - Fierce Wireless

Music labels embrace mobile beyond ringtones

While ringtones are still the music industry's favorite mobile product, there are clear signs that music labels are embracing additional mobile content products like mobile games and video to promote their acts. However, the entertainment field continues to decry the length of time it takes to develop for the mobile platform, which severely limits the ability to include mobile content in their pre-release strategies.

For more details on this trend
- read the Billboard article (sub. req.)
- also available w/o subscription via Reuters

Related Articles:
- WMG enters mobile gaming biz
- Panic Channel launches mobile video promo

Mobile Payments in Kuwait - Fierce Wireless

Mobile Payments - Reducing Churn for Wireless Carriers

In an in-depth article, Alex Ritman writes for ITP Technology about NTT DoCoMo's experiences with mobile payments in Japan - and looks at mobile payments initiatives in Kuwaitcould reduce churn by up to 15%. This is what was experienced by NTT DoCoMo.” [Note: Read more about mobile payments in the Payments News Mobile Commerce Archive.] by MTC-Vodafone and the National Bank of Kuwait - where the bank says that 30-40% of its customers have signed up for the service. In the article, Ritman quotes Ghassan Hasbani, principal of Booz Allen Hamilton's communications and technology practice, who says that “M-payments by itself is not a major source of revenue generation - m-payments make up just around 2% of NTT DoCoMo's overall revenue. However, when you introduce mobile payments, it

Obopay, Digital Music - MoCoNews

» Mobile Payment Firm Obopay Gets $7 Million Funding; Adds Three VPs

U.S. Mobile payment company Obopay has secured $7 million in funding in a second round led by Qualcomm and joined by Redpoint Ventures, Onset Ventures and Richmond Management, which all contributed to the first round of $10 million last February. The funding will be used by Obopay to expand its marketing and operations. As for Qualcomm: "We look forward to working with Obopay and driving mass consumer adoption of their innovative peer-to-peer mobile payments solution on the BREW platform."

The company also added three new VPs: Christian Delay, VP of business development for mobile; Ramy Mora, VP of consumer marketing; and Sam Shawki, VP of customer operations. Christian joins Obopay from Yahoo, where he led development initiatives at Yahoo Go Mobile with Cingular, Yahoo SMS Search, and the "Pepsi Cool Tones and Motorola Phones" promotion.

» 2006 UK Digital Music Survey
Related Topics: Mobile Music, Research, UK -- Permalink - Comments (0) [by james]

There's a lot of interest in the 2006 Digital Music Survey (PDF) by Entertainment Media Research, most of it negative. We posted on it yesterday, but other reporters have pulled out some different stats. Ciara O-Brian notes: "The survey also revealed consumers opinions on mobile music devices. Some 46 percent of respondents said they would prefer a mobile phone that could play music files, with 21 percent saying they would prefer a music player that integrated a mobile phone. Tellingly, a third of British consumers would prefer to keep their mobile phone and digital music player separate." (So those article saying that iPod is finished because there is a "slight, but firm preference" for converged devices are wrong).

The Register picks out some gender differences: "Women are more inclined to impulse buy than men...Men would also rather, weirdly, prefer to turn their iPod into a phone, than vice versa by a small margin. Women think their phones are their most important gadgets".

In the pre-CTIA season I don't have time to give the 106 page document a thorough going over, but here are some more stats:
–Downloaded a music video to a phone for fr*ee: 9% (14% 13-17yr)
–Purchased music videos downloaded to a phone: 9% (11% 13-17yr)
–Only 4% of respondents indicated they were likely to start mobile downloading, indicating the market may have stalled after successfully attracting early adopters.
–Key reasons people download music to mobiles include being able to listen to the song immediately (41%) and download from anywhere, anytime (29%).

Friday, September 01, 2006

The future of mobile on the BBC

You can watch it online. Follow this link and click on the 'Future use for mobiles' link top right: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
There is also an associated blog article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

Sony's plans for music

Sony Ericsson to offer music download service - Fierce Wireless

Sony Ericsson is expected to unveil plans for a music download service later this year. When the handset joint venture launched its latest music phone under the Walkman brand in May, it said that it may expand its current PlayNow service (which offers ringtones and games) to also include music. Earlier this month, Nokia announced its intention to acquire music distribution company Loudeye for $600 million and set up a music service under its own brand.

Ericsson already provides the backend technology that lets carriers power their own download music services, and the joint venture has been selling Walkman-branded music phones like hot cakes. Meanwhile, partner Sony owns a chunk of the music label Sony BMG and also operates the Sony Connect digital media distribution service.

For more about Sony Ericsson's intentions to launch a music download service:
- read this article from the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)

Nokia acquires Loudeye - Fierce Wireless

Loudeye, a provider of white-labeled digital and mobile music services, finally found a buyer in Nokia, almost a year after first putting itself on the sales block. The company previously sold its U.S. operations to Muze for $11 million. Nokia is ponying up $60 million cash for the company, saying it plans to offer a "comprehensive mobile music experience" using the new technology to launch by 2007.

Key to the Nokia deal is Loudeye's ownership of OD2, a mobile music service backend provider it bought for $38 million in 2004. Prior to the acquisition, Nokia and Loudeye had teamed to develop a Nokia-run mobile music service. This is a huge move by Nokia to take a direct role in the mobile music future, but one that likely will have a greater effect in Europe than in the U.S.

Read up on the sale details:
- from the Nokia press release
- or the article in Ars Technica

Sony Ericsson Hints At Music Downloads On PlayNow Service - MoCoNews

Sony Ericsson wants to develop its PlayNow service, Reuters reported today, but gave few details about its plans. Currently the service offers ringtone downloads - users can listen to a clip and then pay for a download. A spokesman said: "We are developing the PlayNow service further - it is part of our bigger music strategy."
Rafat adds: One of Sony Ericsson's parent Ericcson already has a tie-up with Napster, and has been working on their music service for a while...in fact, Napster Mobile is Ericsson's hosted music service featuring Napster's catalog of artist images, ring tones and full-length songs. Hopefully some synergies will work here, but with Sony's that's a lot to ask.