“Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, is planning to compete head-to-head with Apple Computer for control of the multi-billion dollar global market for digital music,” David Ibison and Kevin Allison report for The Financial Times. “The Finnish company will in 2007 set up a rival to Apple’s iTunes online music store and also hopes its music-enabled phones will eventually depose Apple’s iconic iPod digital music player.”
“The new service, as yet unnamed, could pose a threat to Apple’s dominance of the multi-billion dollar online music industry, which it built following the 2001 launch of iTunes and the iPod. ‘We want to be a global leader in mobile music experiences, and if that means operating in areas where Apple is, then so be it,’ Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice-president of Nokia Multimedia, told the Financial Times,” Ibison and Allison report.
“The news of the proposed launch comes as Norway, Denmark and Sweden are challenging Apple to allow songs downloaded from iTunes to be played on any digital music player,” Ibison and Allison report. “While further details of the planned service were unavailable, Nokia on Tuesday announced the proposed acquisition of Loudeye, a US digital music distributor, for $60m. Loudeye’s name will be dropped and will provide the platform for Nokia’s digital music offering. Loudeye has a current library of 1.6m music tracks.”
Full article here.
It’s good to have dreams. FYI, we’re hearing rumblings from different sources about iPod+iTunes that should become clearer soon.