NEWS: Microsoft fights Apple in the battle for your cell phone!

GEEK: Microsoft fights Apple in the battle for your cell phone!

Mobile phones are big business these days, with over 650 million units sold each year it produces massive revenue. And big money attracts big vultures, Microsoft is mobilising to get it's audio and video software into the next generation of cell phones and they're hoping to beat Apple to the punch.

Whichever of the two software giants manages to convince major mobile companies such as Siemens and Nokia to use their encryption and protection software may very well be poised to dominate the internet music store business in the future.

Last month Apple announced their partnership with Motorola, which will bring a cut down version of the iTunes music store to the new range of Motorola phones. They looked to be taking a big lead in the initiative, but it seems Microsoft are hotter on their heels than previously thought.

The contract that really matters though is Nokia, as although their market share is sliding they still produce about a third of the world's cell phones. Will the iTunes brand name, and association with the iPod be enough to swing things Apples way? Or is Microsoft destined to own yet another part of the mass market's digital lives?

Hadn't they stated, around the peak of their success, that they no longer considered themselves in competition with the rest of the mobile industry but rather with Microsoft?

At least that's how I explained why they released so many assy phones.

*circular fucking keypads*

i think the difference is apple are really branding the motorola phones as itunes phones, wehreas microsoft just want the handsets to be compatible with wma. they don't care whou you buy from, as long as it's wma format, whereas the apple deal is very much, buy from apple.
the article says microsoft are gunning for nokia to include it, but then maybe their competition in onther areas would make nokia go with another format just to say fuck you to microsoft.
apple do have the lead in digital music, they just need to get moving before they lose it. they innovate so often, and then lose the markets they create

Hey something needs to be done about the phonepads and the number pad on youre keyboard. They should count in the smae direction!! You have no idea how many times i've misdialed phone numbers or mistyped in a price at work cuz of this STUPID discrepancy!

god not another possible microsoft product... so obviously world domination is still on bill gates' mind..

You know what? I could care less about all of the individual features. But it would be great if ALL cell phone manufacturers could come up with SOME standard for syncing data from you computer to your cell phone.

I'm ready to drop Sprint PCS and chuck my Samsung flip-phone just because Apple's iSync is not supported even with a USB cable.

It's sickening I tells ya!

They were designed to be different. I think the touchtone phone came after the block format of keyboards, but I could be wrong. Whichever came second did it on purpose, just to be snarky or to create their own standard or something. Kind of like Microsoft trying to make WMA standard.