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"When Gilles Babinet looks at a cell phone, he sees a music store, an iPod and even a nascent platform for a tiny-screened MTV."

[Via CNet]



Vodafone is charging the iPod and other Internet based PC to consumer markets. How so you ask? Well, they have tackled a huge portion of the European market for cell phone/mobile based multimedia services. Services such as their music store which sadly only hosts a few thousand songs but promises to be more than 50,000 strong in coming months.



While US markets dominate with iPod and iTunes music store, European initiatives and targets are different. The European version of this music service (iTMS) is vastly under-developed compared to its US model. More Europeans carry many more cell phones than personal mp3 players such as the iPod. Therefore, companies such as Vodafone are focusing on a complete and accessible music store from users cell phones in hopes to attract a larger impulse buying trend. Vodafone believes that if its service is done right, sales will escalate and the market for mobile multimedia services such as cell phone music retailers will dominate the compared PC based services found widely today in both US and European markets.



With Increased broadband and 3G communication services, phones are taking new challenges and able to deliver a more robust array of features for users to enjoy than simply talking and storing contacts in a central HD and on the phones RAM. Will this counter-wit Apple and their success with iTMS and the iPod? Probably not, at least in the US market, but if the deal is done with attention to quality and simplicity like the iTMS Europe and maybe even the US will experience a whole new competitor in the digital music revolution.