14 DAY TRIAL // Ericsson and Napster announced the first European launch for Napster Mobile, with Irish mobile phone operator O2 Ireland. O2 Ireland is also the first operator to launch Napster Mobile in i-mode.
O2 Ireland customers will be able to search, browse, preview and purchase full-length songs from Napster's catalog and enjoy Ericsson-aggregated personalization content via their i-mode, WAP and Java-enabled wireless handsets.
The service also features a recommendation engine which makes content recommendations based upon each consumer's musical taste, and dual delivery, a feature that sends a copy of the content purchased on the handset to the customer's PC. Napster Mobile gives customers access to Napster's advanced programming on the handset, including featured artists and top tracks of the day.
"We are delighted to be the first mobile operator in Europe to launch Napster Mobile. The Napster brand is instantly recognizable as one of the world's biggest music brands with 2 million tracks available immediately for our i-mode customers. Our customers have asked us for on-line music brands and we are delighted to provide the Napster catalogue as part of our i-mode service," said Gerry McQuaid, Commercial Director, O2 Ireland.
"We believe that O2 Ireland's subscribers will find this a very attractive service to use. Music is an important area for telecom operators and now Napster Mobile service with i-mode functionality opens up possibilities for other i-mode operators," said John Hennessy, country manager, Ericsson Ireland.
Ericsson will host, integrate and manage the operations of the service for O2 Ireland under a managed service agreement.