KDDI Annouces Full Song Service
The first mobile phone service enabling full-length songs to be downloaded to handsets is to be launched by a Japanese telco group that believes it has found the “killer application” that will transform 3G mobile technology. KDDI, Japan’s second biggest telecoms company, is set to launch the service late next month. Users will be able to choose from 10,000 songs on six websites and download them for the equivalent of a few US dollars, each.
The company has signed up 20 record labels and is opening the service to all interested content providers. Tadashi Onodera, KDDI president, called the service “ground-breaking”, adding the group wanted to make it a “defining service” for its mobile arm. If the music download service is successful in Japan which has led the world in adopting 3G mobile phone technology and pioneered many wireless phone applications it could encourage carriers in other countries to follow suit.
KDDI’s flat-rate data package will also mean users can download as many songs as they want without increasing their phone bill. The phone can store about 60 songs, which can then be transferred to a memory card. Continue >>