Banking on the idea that mobile phones will replace digital music players, Napster and Sony Ericsson plan to announce today a joint venture to make a music-downloading service available to cell phone operators.
"The brand of Napster is so recognized and so strong on the Internet that it would open up a big market on the mobile phone," Said Hans Vestberg, executive vice president for Ericsson's Global Services. "And as we see right now, more and more mobile phones are coming out with MP3 players."
Brad Duea, the current president of Napster, said the system was designed to work seamlessly with the Napster software on personal computers as well. When a customer downloads a song to a cell phone, a copy would be sent to the customer's e-mail address for downloading to the PC aswell.
The venture will first be deployed in markets where Napster is currently active. This includes North America and the UK.
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