Martin has 10 years of experience working within the mobile entertainment area, having secured global and multi-regional movie, TV and music rights for both Ericsson and Sony Ericsson mobile phones as well as managing global marketing communication campaigns around these entertainment properties.
Why is mobile music an area of strategic importance for Sony Ericsson?
- Music has become one of the main drivers for 3G and large data entertainment services for the mobile phone end-user and will continue to gain in importance. Sony Ericsson is committed to maximizing the value and experience for the end-user and to increasing revenue for operators, and the Walkman
family of mobile phones do this through music. Music-related services, content and applications are fundamental parts of our overall content strategy.
What is Sony Ericsson's vision of the way forward for mobile music?
- We believe that super-distribution of music is the way forward. By this I mean the easy sharing of music between friends - legally downloaded/transferred or by creating your own - all combined with applications that can manage or personalize the music experience on your mobile phone.
Is this only relevant to the Walkman family of phones?
- No. Even though the Walkman portfolio is the main focus of Sony Ericsson's music activities, music solutions for our other series of mobile phones are just as relevant. Network limitations, product market reach, end-user choice and model-version exclusivity to certain operators mean that we need to make sure that the music experience is as good as possible across our product portfolio.
What is Sony Ericsson's policy on Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
- We monitor the DRM standards set by the industry and strive to have products that are media source, and hence DRM, agnostic. All current Sony Ericsson mobile phones support the standard Open Mobile Alliance's (OMA) DRM v 1.0.
How important is DRM for the development of third-party, music-related applications?
- When actively using "branded" music (i.e. official copyright or other rights protected), DRM is the key for everyone who intends to play a role in this market. For the development of applications where branded music is only handled passively, e.g. media players, this is up to the developer, as long as it doesn't have a negative impact on the DRM protection of the music flowing through or being used by the application.
How does Sony Ericsson see the mobile music market evolving?
- The coming convergence of fixed and mobile broadband network services combined with the convergence of "traditional" audio-visual consumer electronics products with mobile phones will have a massive effect on the mobile music market. We foresee a tremendous growth.
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