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Microsoft and Nokia Announce Music Partnership

Microsoft and Nokia Announce Music Partnership

by , 12:45 PM EST, February 14th, 2005

Microsoft and Nokia, historically stiff competitors, have announced a music-distribution partnership. Starting immediately, telecom firms and online music distributors can sell music that will play on Nokia handsets.

The Microsoft-Nokia partnership is in part a declaration of fealty by Nokia to Microsoft's Windows Media format. Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker, has already sold 10 million music-enabled phones, and the company plans to have more than half of its product line music-enabled by the end of 2005. But Microsoft has also agreed to support the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards on digital media rights. The OMA, a Seattle-based standards organization has outlined only basic features of digital rights management (DRM) software, such as copy protection and the ability to preview media, but has not announced support for a particular DRM.

Nokia and Microsoft have competed in several markets in the past. Microsoft has long been tried to work it way into the mobile phone market by supplying the software for high end "smartphones." Nokia has refused to use Microsoft software, fearing lock-in and the high royalties PC manufactures pay in order to bundle Windows on their computers. As a result, this announcement marks a departure Nokia, but not for Microsoft.

The partnership was announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. Earlier today we carried an announcement of the European partnership between Apple and Teleca. Both of these announcements mirror the Apple-Motorola partnership in the US.

Motorola-Nokia Announcement

Observer Comments

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Close Name:fartheststar Posts: 222 Joined: 04 Jan 2004
Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:56 pm Subject: nokia is going down

How do you perform Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a Nokia Phone when the WMA doesn't work?

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Close Name:jfbiii Posts: 109 Joined: 06 May 2004
Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:39 pm Subject: That's easy...

...when you dial 9-1-1 you're connected directly with Bangladeshi support personnel.

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:58 pm Subject: I really liked Nokia

I think their mobile phone interface is second to none. Their phones have always been intuitive and while being creative. I really wished Apple would have worked with Nokia instead of Motorola. Oh well, we'll see how big the integration of phone + MP3 player will become.

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:54 pm Subject: Possibly a winner?

I think if they allow you to download music directly from your wireless phone, they will have a real winner on their hands. I know a lot of people who don't own a computer but they all own cell phones. Plus with WMA's higher compression rate, the phones can hold a lot more songs per GB. I think I heard WMA can put like 500+ songs in 256MB flash memory.

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:08 pm Subject: Motorola is rising anyhow

Motorola linux phones + iTunes support coming to a market near you soon. Take a look at what they are doing. Nokia should be scared.

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Close Name:Tiger Posts: 1018 Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:05 pm Subject:

Quote
fartheststar wrote:
How do you perform Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a Nokia Phone when the WMA doesn't work?

You cock your arm way back and thrown the dumb thing off a bridge into a deep body of water. I had a long string of Nokia phones until I found out how much better Motorola phones had become. Won't go back.

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Close Name:Semeyaza Posts: 130 Joined: 29 Aug 2002
Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:27 pm Subject: and what about updates!?

i have brand new Nokia 6630 and now I wonder... when I'll do some firmware update... will I have to check if they are trying to slip some MS crap into my cell phone!?!

No way I'll want to infect my phone with their software... I've chosen a symbian phone for a reason.. and that's not being MS!!

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