Nokia licenses Microsoft’s ‘PlayReady’ DRM

“Nokia Corp. has agreed to license Microsoft Corp.’s new PlayReady DRM (digital rights management) technology,” John Blau reports for IDG News Service.

“The deal extends Nokia’s existing copy protection offerings, which include Windows Media DRM 10 and OMA DRM (Open Alliance Mobile DRM), Steven Knuff, a spokesman at Nokia’s multimedia division, said Monday,” Blau reports.

“Nokia plans to support PlayReady across a range of devices using the S60 and S40 user interface platforms beginning in 2008,” Blau reports.

“Knuff declined to comment on whether the most recent DRM agreement with Microsoft would have an impact on Nokia’s rumored plans to launch an online music and mobile content store, following the company’s acquisition of U.S. digital music distributor Loudeye Corp.,” Blau reports.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Nokia employs the Symbian OS.

Research from Canalys (Feb. 07) states that total smart phone shipments for 2006 totaled 64.1 million.

Canalys estimated 2006 smart phone operating system market share as follows:
• Symbian: 67% share (42.947 million units)
• Microsoft: 14% share (8.974 million units)
• RIM: 7% (4.487 million units)
• Linux: 6% (3.846 million units)
• ACCESS/PalmSource with the Garnet OS: 5% (3.205 million units)

Apple’s publicly-stated goals: 1 million iPhones by the end of this quarter, 10 million iPhones in 2008.

38 Comments

  1. The Norwegian Interoperability Coalition and the EU Committee for Ubiquity are in the lobby. They demand everything new work seamlessly with everything old. All music encoded with any form of DRM must play on Volvo cassette players and Thorens turntables.

  2. Hearing Micro$oft saying “PlayReady” reinforces my opinion that these LIARS should be held to account in a court of law for their blatent lies.

    Want proof? Just ask all the manufacturers of “PlaysForSure” devices that do anything but “PlayForSure”

  3. Someone sounds desperate, I mean, how can a tech that restricts accessibility of files increase revenue, unless of course, they force you to repeatedly buy them if somehow you lose your copy?

    PS. I see Nokias store going the way of Napster

  4. Nothing new here, but I have always wondered about Microsoft’s ironic streak when it comes to naming their technology. First it was “plug-and-play” then it was “plays-for-sure” and now we have “PlayReady”. I’m waiting for PerfectPlayer to replace WMP.

  5. Wow, after the way MS burned everyone with PlaysForSure, you’d think companies would learn and just tell MS to piss off. It constantly amazes me how people just repeatedly and willingly get in line for more abuse from MS…

    MDN Magic Word: Brown – that about sums it up!

  6. AT&T network where I live sucks big time. Always dropping; ‘never connecting” should be the official slogan.

    I’ve got a T-Mobile 6133 that works very well. The OS isn’t that bad compared to other phones I’ve used. My son has a Nokia 5300 Music Express phone. He dragged his songs from the itunes library folder inside the music folder to his phone via USB and it works perfectly!

    It isn’t a iPhone but it works.

  7. “Play Ready”???

    It looks like Micropenis is worried “Plays For Sure” would get them sued for false advertising.

    ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />

  8. All of Microsoft’s protocols involving the word “Play” remind me of the scene from “The Simpsons” where Roger Meyers, the president of Itchy & Scratchy Inc., appears on a home shopping network.

    Meyers: Troy, I’m proud to offer your viewers these hand-drawn Itchy and Scratchy animation cels. Each one is absolutely, positively, 100% guaranteed to increase in value.
    Voiceover: Not a guarantee.

  9. Is there even anything playable on mobile technology (or any technology for that matter) that is even worth the effort of developing DRM for it.

    Methinks all these people scrambling for a Holy Grail” of DRM value their product far, far more than it is actually worth.

    Talk about DRM reminds me of every discussion I’ve heard about sex.

    They usually devolve into two screeching camps. The anal retentive, typically politically conservative, religion-dominated, “unmarried sex is a sin” lemmings (often joined in political lockstep with their anal retentive, typically politically liberal, sociatal dominated, “sex is the same as rape” hare-brained cousins) vs. the equally hare-brained, advocates of the “lifestyle” and hedonists of every other stripe.

    I have come to the conclusion that what they are…is two sides of the same coin. Both parties are neurotically, pathelogically obsessed with sex.

    Like DRM, both sides are obsessed with something that just isn’t that important…in the long run and the grand scheme of things.

    The log run could be 5 years, 10 years, 50, a hundred, or more, but eventually it (be it sex or DRM) will not matter.

    And as for the grand scheme of things?

    The Universe doesn’t care.

    IMHO.

  10. Nokia actually announced this as marketing move to attract customers? Are they stupid?

    >”It’s all about choice,” Knuff said. “If customers want a particular DRM technology, then we’ll provide it.”

    There goes the “choice” angle again. Choice in DRM is like choice in which pair of handcuffs to wear. And to think, Nokia’s customers actually asked for a “particular CRM technology.”

  11. No, no one is asking for a particular DRM technology. Nokia just sees the danger in Apple taking the cell phone market like they did the music player market and bet on the most likely player to trump them, Microsoft. The only problem with this plan is that Microsoft hasn’t been able to trump Apple yet, and it is looking increasingly bad for them (despite what they pay journalist to say.)

    Nokia would better be suited for playing DRM free m4p’s that can be purchased from the iTunes store and making sure their phones sink with iTunes flawlessly.

    (Many music players sink with iTunes. iTunes was around long before the iPod.)

  12. Okay, folks, what comes after Play Ready?

    Plays Fer Sherrr
    Plays Fer Sherrr – Totally Awesome Edition
    Plays If You Feed Quarters Through a Slot and Watch Through a Peephole
    Plays With You – Latex Edition
    Plays When It Bloody Well Feels Like It
    Plays if you’re a good boy – spiked leather edition

    Or, will they go for… Pay Per Squirt?

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