Music is a common feature available in almost all the new generation mobile phones. In fact, according to researchers, about 80 percent of mobile phones sold have music capabilities in them. Interestingly however, many mobile phone users prefer to use their MP3 players to listen to music instead of their music-enabled mobile phones. This is largely due to poor reception quality of the music in these phones and poorer sound systems. Apple has been immensely successful with its iPod, which is combined with iTunes and all attempts to challenge Apple’s supremacy in this field have come short in some way.

 

Now, Apple has a new challenger, Omnifone. The company has launched iPhone (News - Alert), the first iPod mobile phone. The company is offering a service called Musicstation, which enables the customers to search for different types of music on their phones and play them. It was launched at 3GSM (News - Alert) World Congress, in Barcelona and has allowed Omnifone to enter the market fully armed with support of leading record labels and mobile phone operators.

 

The company recognizes the fact that mobile phones can be widely used as music players and seeks to explore the market with the right solutions. Omnifone has tied up with music companies such as Universal Music to provide catalogues for its customers at 2.99 euros (3.89 dollars) a week. With a customer base of 690 million in 40 countries with 23 participating mobile phone providers from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, Omnifone is highly optimistic about its chances. It can also look for encouragement from Apple, which sold 70 million iPods in just over five years.

 

Musicstation will be a pre-installed service on participating partner operator handsets. It allows users to search, download and play music on their mobile phones. In addition to this, users can create, manage and store playlists centrally and share it with other MusicStation users. Also, the latest in music news is available with the MusicStation service.

 

MusicStation will run on all 2.5G and 3G music compatible mobiles.

 

The Musicstation will be introduced in the US in June and in Europe and Asia by the end of the year. By 2008, Omnifone aims to sell 10 million iPhones all over the world. Transmission in Europe and Asia will begin in the second and third quarter.

 

Apart from Apple, Omnifone will face competition from leading players like Microsoft (News - Alert) in the music enabled mobile phone market. A couple of years ago, Microsoft tried to enter the market with a brand called "Plays for Sure”, which guaranteed to play music from different online shops on devices by different manufacturers. But, the brand didn’t take off as expected. Now, Microsoft is testing "PlayReady”, which enables the users to move music or videos between their different mobile devices. Microsoft has partnered with companies like O2, Verizon (News - Alert), Telefonica and AT&T to realize this project.

 

While Microsoft’s new service is still in testing phase, the Musicstation service has a distinctive advantage over its nearest competitor, Apple’s iPhones. While Apple’s iPhones require a computer to download music, using the Musicstation service, one can download music from anywhere, anytime, without the need to be near a computer. It will be interesting to see how much market Omnifone will cover with this advantage.