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Mobile land rush - September 11, 2007

Mobile content delivery is becoming a bruising land rush, at least in Europe.

With the European introduction of Apple's iPhone looming, Old World wireless providers and handset makers are racing to position themselves in the content-delivery food chain before Apple eats their lunch.

Last week, handset-maker Nokia unveiled the online Nokia Music Store and a pair of new, multimedia phones optimized for music, video and game play. It also struck deals with all four major record distributors, as well as Electronic Arts and Gameloft to provide content for the new service.

On Tuesday, U.K. wireless carrier Vodaphone unveiled its own music download service, called MusicStation, in partnership with Omniphone, a U.K.-based mobile music distributor. Like Nokia, Vodaphone was able to secure content from all major music distributors. It's also rolling out two new exclusive multimedia phones from Samsung.

Reports have also surfaced that French wireless provider Orange is planning its own mobile content service, leading to clashes with Nokia over the handset maker's new phones and Music Store.

Ironically, back in the U.S., where Apple has actually sold a million iPhones, the mobile content business remains well behind much of the rest of the world.
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