December 10, 2007
Apple calls the tune in mobile music
Apple's iPhone has set off an avalanche of traditional mobile phone operators into the music market, fearing that a vital source of revenue could be seized from under them. The Times Online reports.
"The market has huge potential: consumers could be spending as much as $32 billion a year buying music on their handsets by 2010, analysts believe. And the success of the iPhone - Orange sold 30,000 in five days – has served to focus Vodafone and its rivals on trying to snare a chunk of the revenue.
-- In September Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile company, offered subscribers access to a vast catalogue of music for less than £2 a week. It dubbed the service, which lets consumers download the latest tunes regardless of their location, a “completely new movement within mobile music”.
-- Last week Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer, went further by promising buyers of its handsets free access to millions of songs for a year. One analyst described the service, offered jointly with Universal, as a potential “game changer”.
Meanwhile, a study by Informa Telecoms & Media found that both the mobile operators and the music industry were “staking much of their future in this market”.
... Edgar Bronfman, the chairman and chief executive of Warner Music, has described the mobile platform as “by far and away the biggest opportunity for entertainment generally and music specifically”. But he also said that if phone companies did not smarten up their act and offer more competitive services, they would be forced to “watch their share of the opportunity diminish” as the likes of Apple cash in.
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