Napster-Ericsson Deal: Music on Mobile to challenge Apple iPod

Apple’s iPod has played a major role in the resurrection of Apple as a prime player in the today’s market. It arrived at a time when music piracy was making Internet look like an evil entity. People loved the little device so much that it alone drives the sales of the Apple’s iTunes Music Store to astonishing levels. Reports claim that Apple sells more than a million songs daily from their digital music store.

And recent studies have also found out that Apple iTunes is as if not more popular than most other music downloading utilities on the internet. Most of these are used to download the music illegally using P2P technologies. This gives some hope to the music industry that given a proper channel, people would still buy good music.

This is where the latest news comes in. Apple iPod is just a music player. It adds to the luggage you have to carry around long with that essential mobile phone. Now the market players are using mobile phones to counter the domination of the Apple’s iPod by incorporating music playing facility in them. Apple is not far behind as they are already in process to develop solutions in collaboration with Motorola.

Market leader in the mobile phone segment Nokia has joined hands with software giant Microsoft for a similar service on their mobiles. The latest is the deal between Napster and Ericsson. All of these companies are aiming for the iPod with their products, which would enable the users to purchase and download music from online stores to their handsets.

What we will have to see is who comes out with the best possible integration. Apple might have an advantage with their massive experience in managing the Apple iTunes Music Store. However, this is an entirely new market, which is in nascent stage right now looking towards the competition to arrive in the near future.