Nokia and Universal to offer ‘free’ music on your mobile

Nokia Corp. said it joined forces with Universal Music to offer unlimited music downloads for a year on phones bundled with its Ovi Web services platform.

Universal Music Group expects its deal to offer free music for 12 months on new Nokia phones to have a wider, “stimulating” effect on the digital music business next year, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The world’s largest music group Universal and the world’s top cellphone vendor Nokia said on Tuesday they would offer a free 12-month access to Universal’s music for buyers of Nokia music phones starting from the second half of 2008.

“I believe the announcement will act as a catalyst for a whole number of business partners to step forward. It’s definitely going to stimulate the business next year,” Rob Wells, Senior Vice President for digital operations at Universal, told Reuters. Universal is owned by French media group Vivendi.

The “Comes With Music” offering would differ from any other package on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded for free during the 12 months, the firms said.

sources: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119676374309413001.html?mod=googlenews_wsj  and Reuters

O2 Sells 8000 iPhones on first night

O2 sent an email to stores an hour after the launch, claiming that 2,000 customers who bought iPhones from O2 stores had registered their devices at 7:02pm. That figure soared to 8,000 by the end of the night.

Sales vary considerably from store to store, with anecdotes of disinterest from some, disbelief at the price tag from others and customers queuing in the snow at O2’s Aberdeen store.

Source: http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/content/17234.asp?men=2&sub=1

Most O2 and Carphone stores said they sold ’solid numbers’ of iPhones – tens rather than hundreds.

200000 iPhones to be sold by O2 UK by end of year

O2 UK expects to sell around 200,000 iPhones by the start of the New Year. Sales will start on 9 November, and Matthew Key, CEO of O2’s UK business, told the Financial Times he expected “a couple of hundred thousand” iPhones to be sold in the first two months.

O2 has ordered “hundreds of thousands” of iPhones from Apple for its stores and online outlets as well as shops run by Carphone Warehouse. After the June launch in the US, 1 million iPhones were sold in just under two and a half months.

The iPhone will sell for GBP 269 in the UK, and customers will have to take out an O2 contract for at least GBP 35 per month for 18 months.

Apple iPhone for Europe partnering with Vodafone, t-Mobile & Carphone Warehouse?

On the rumour mill for some weeks has been the story that Vodafone and t-Mobile were in discussions about sole distributorship rights for a European iPhone. But now Gizmodo, have suggested that an announcement is due today and that both operators will win, leveraging the successes of both networks in different countries.

This would be great news for GSM users globally, a non-exclusive agreement would have far reaching appeal to mobile phone users than the American AT&T arrangement. Gizmodo also suggest that Carphone Warehouse (its name in the UK) will also get a distributor licence.

We wait to hear if it will be a 3G phone with better camera and more memory!

Mobile Jamming in Malaysian Government Buildings

Reuters reports that Malaysia has banned mobile phones and installed electronic jamming devices in key parts of its administrative capital to block spying on official discussions. “The widespread use of these devices, especially handphones with camera facilities, has serious implications on security,” the Star newspaper quoted Malaysia’s top bureaucrat, Mohamed Sidek Hassan, as saying in a recent message to officials.

Mohamed Sidek also asked department heads to designate areas where official matters are discussed as “information security zones,” the paper added.

There have been no security breaches or leaks of sensitive information to Internet sites, security official Johari Jamaluddin told the paper.

He confirmed that jamming equipment had been installed in some rooms of government buildings in Putrajaya, the administrative capital, but declined to identify them.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKSP20461020070416?feedType=RSS