Sprint Enters the Mobile Music Market

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

1:58 am on November 3, 2005 | Category: Business, Telecom Services

Sprint Nextel has just launched its first attempt over-the-air music download service. But the offering is far from ideal, with prices of more than double those of iTunes.

The Sprint Music Store allows users to browse and preview songs directly on their mobile phones, then download them, without the need for a PC. The fact that the service requires no hardware aside from the phone itself makes Sprint phones different from the Motorola ROKR, which uses iTunes, and requires a PC for downloads.

The downside of Sprint’s new service is the hefty price of $2.50 per song. In all fairness, buyers do get two copies of each song, one of which if formatted for a PC, the other for the mobile phone itself, but most analysts believe that the high price could be a problem for many users.

Although some people will likely use the new service, purely for the sake of convenience, Sprint will have to do a good job of capitalizing on this by making it very simple and easy to use, if they hope to compete effectively.

Links: Sprint, Cell Phones, Mobile Phones, Music, Mobile Music, Download, Entertainment.