Sprint challenges Apple with 99c mobile downloads

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 06:38

Your IT - Entertainment

US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel has issued a strong challenge to Apple's iTunes service, offering mobile phone downloads at a price matching 99 cents. The service, which begins in early April, will apply to the 1.5 million songs in the Sprint Music Store library.

While the service does not provide quite the extensive range of Apple's iTunes, it offers something that Apple doesn't - downloads on the fly from any location within mobile phone range.

The Sprint move turns up the heat on Apple, which has insisted that its upcoming iPhone will not include a resident version of iTunes. Apple's VP iPod products Greg Joswiak at the iPhone unveiling in January said: “iTunes was designed to exist on the Mac and PCs. That’s where the music should live.” Apple may want to rethink that strategy in light of the Sprint move.

Beginning in early April, the Sprint Music Store will offer songs at $ 0.99 - the lowest rate available for over-the-air song downloads purchased in the United States. This price applies to every song in the Sprint Music Store's library of more than 1.5 million songs.

The Sprint Music Store provides songs from major producers including EMI Music, SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group as well as thousands of independent labels distributed by Groove Mobile and IODA. Groove Mobile also powers the Sprint Music Store. The new per-song rate is available to Sprint customers with any Sprint Power Vision data plan.

Sprint will also offer another music focused plan, which will include commercial free radio stations and a mobile music video channel from Sprint TV. In light a recent announcement from AT&T and Napster, which offers a bundling mobile phone deal with unlimited free music downloads for one year, the mobile music downloads market has heated to a level which may cause Apple some discomfort just three months out from the US launch of iPhone.