Nokia Adds PlayReady

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 07 August 2007

Nokia has announced it will support Microsoft's PlayReady technology on the Nokia S60 and Series 40 mobile device platforms to enable content providers to deliver virtually any type of digital content. The two will also collaborate to simplify the processes used to access and use digital content using mobile devices. PlayReady will make it easier to deliver and control premium content while also enabling features such as renting content or access it offline or transfer it between a mobile device and their home PC. "People are increasingly using their mobile devices for enjoying digital content, such as music, games, videos and photos," said Ilkka Raiskinen, senior vice president of Multimedia Experiences at Nokia. "By adding support for Microsoft PlayReady technology, we are enabling service providers to offer a wide range of content and create truly compelling experiences across mobile devices, personal computers and online services. We plan to support PlayReady across a range of S60 and Series 40 devices starting in 2008." The announcement is a big win for Microsoft's new digital rights management technology because the Nokia S60 series is by far the most widely used smartphone operating system world-wide. The Series 40 is Nokia's mobile phone operating system for lower cost phones. Between them and adding Microsoft's own Windows 4 Mobiles devices will give PlayReady service providers an enormous market of devices to target. "Through our collaboration with Nokia, we aim to deliver a compelling platform that offers consumers seamless access to virtually any type of digital content they want," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft. "Nokia's breadth of offering in this space, coupled with core digital media technology from Microsoft in the form of PlayReady, will bring new mobile entertainment scenarios to life for millions of consumers around the world." Microsoft PlayReady is designed for digital entertainment services, devices and applications, with a specific focus on meeting the needs of mobile operators, service providers and device manufacturers. The technology supports a range of business models that can be applied to almost any type of digital content (music, video, games, ringtones, images and more) and a wide range of audio and video formats (including Windows Media Audio (WMA), Windows Media Video (WMV), AAC, AAC+, AMR and H.264). Microsoft released the PlayReady Porting Kit for mobile devices in early August 2007, and expects the first services using Microsoft PlayReady technology to appear in 2008. In addition, Microsoft has designed PlayReady to be fully backward-compatible with Windows Media DRM 10, which means that devices supporting PlayReady can access existing Windows Media DRM-based content as well as new PlayReady content services. Related news items Hybrid Drive Boosts Laptop's Skillset -10/10/2007 The Poor Man's Palm -02/10/2007 Nokia E51: Smarter Than It Looks -19/09/2007 Palm Goes Consumer With Treo 500v -12/09/2007 Vodafone UK Promises All-You-Can-Hear Music -12/09/2007 Newer news items Next G Virtual Concert Schedule (mostly) Announced -12/09/2007 Yellow Cabs Offer New Mobile Booking Service -24/08/2007 Australian Idol Live On Next G -19/08/2007 Doh! Phone Pirate Could Get Five Years -17/08/2007 3 Trials Alternative Mobile TV Technology -15/08/2007 Older news items Mobile Apps Worth Billions To Operators -01/08/2007 Mobile TV Gets A Big Boost -19/07/2007 Google Begins Taunting Cell Phone Carriers -19/07/2007 Google Experiments With AdSense For Mobile -16/07/2007 Nokia Takes A Skype Tablet -11/07/2007 Tag This Now: