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Music Download Service by Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson, the successful mobile phone maker stated it plans to launch a new service on its phones that would allow full music downloading. Music players have been having integrated into Sony Ericsson`s handsets for some time now, as a part of a threat to Apple`s iPod. Sony Ericsson is now launching its new service M-BUZZ, which will use an improved version of its PlayNow service and the Internet.

The company said in a statement: "The first phones offering M-BUZZ will be the W850 and W950 Walkman phones announced earlier this year and scheduled to ship in European, Asian and Latin American markets during the second half of 2006". Half owned by Sony Corp and half by Ericsson, the company said it would initially offer a limited number of artists and bands each month, picked from Sony/ATV Music Publishing`s roster.

"It will initially offer content for download to the phone, with new commercial aspects being developed later as additional features are incorporated in the M-BUZZ space," it added. According to Strategy Analytics, close to 100 million phones sold this year will have a built-in music player and that number will grow to almost 800 million units by 2010.