14 DAY TRIAL // The iTunes' success has triggered a true mobile music frenzy. Several mobile network carriers are considering the possibility of launching their own brand of music download services or iTunes compatible phones, while others are already doing it.
The latest example is that of Verizon Wireless, the second-largest U.S. mobile- telephone services provider, which will launch a music-playing phone and online music service to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes store and planned phone with Motorola Inc.
Verizon Wireless' music service is expected to be up and running in six to eight months, and a Verizon Wireless-branded LG Electronics handset will be available by August, as much as a month before Motorola and Apple are due to unveil an iTunes phone, according to Chief Executive Dennis Strigl.
Verizon Wireless' move into online music would follow that of Ericsson, the world's largest maker of cellular-phone networks, which said on June 15 that it will start an online service with Napster Inc.
Strigl, who is counting on rising demand for non-voice features to drive growth at Verizon Wireless, thinks that music will be the next hit in the cell phone industry. "It's one more data application to create more value to get customers to spend more money with us" said Dennis Strigl while speaking on this issue.
"There still is a race," said Yankee Group analyst Adam Zawel. "If carriers are going to try an alternative, they have to get it out there before everyone has an iPod."