Musicwave, which provides entertainment services to mobile operators, will help to fill out Openwave’s software and service product lines. Link to full press release.

Attorney Ray Beckerman has posted a great summary of the judgment with links to the actual court decision. The follow-up comments provide a good bit of additional analysis, including a post by the attorney representing the mother.

MM makes some great points about how device convergence is different for the mobile phone is different for the camera than for the portable music player. In the case of digital cameras, stand-alone cameras still offer an advantage over their camera-phone counterparts at the same price. This leaves a place for both combined and stand-alone cameras in the market.

Music capable cellphones though offer almost the same functionality as stand-alone music players such as iPods and Mp3 players. While this is true, battery life is still a major concern for consumers in the phone market. The devices may have the same capabilities, but the functionalities are very different.

Research has shown than talk-time/standby-time is the single most valued phone function. When consumers are told that listening to two hours of mobile music uses over half (phone-dependant) of the batter life, consumers’ desires for a mobile phone that plays music changes drastically. Unfortunately, phone manufacturers are not likely to give this type of full information to consumers.

The MM article continues to look at some interesting possibilities for changes in the music market and distribution as convergence with the cellphone begins to take hold. While we disagree on when this will happen for reasons such as battery life, we do believe that it will happen in time. MM discusses the possibilities for MobSharing of music. MobSharing may not become the major distribution channel in the future, but it is likely to become an important means to share new music and monitor trends.

• 30% of respondents have a phone capable of playing music tracks
• 56% of respondents do not have a phone capable of playing music tracks
• 8% of respondents are unsure of their devices capabilities, with the remaining not owning a mobile phone
• 4% of respondents use very often their cellphones for listening to music
• 13% of respondents sometimes use their cellphones for listening to music
• 53% of respondents favor using their cellphone for music because it means only having to carry one device
• 4% of respondents welcomed the ability to include music charges on the phone bill
• 36% of respondents do not see any benefit from mobile music
• 24% of respondents are most concerned about poor sound quality
• 15% of respondents are most concerned about loosing their device and paid content
• 19% of respondents are most concerned about lack of storage space
• 17% of respondents are most concerned about battery drain

In the long run, many these concerns and capabilities will be taken care of with advancements in technology.

Convergence in device capabilities will happen, but not all of these concerns will be addressed in the upcoming months. Specifically, the market is in desperately in need of improved power technologies. Battery life generally does not ranked in the top features in consumer polls such as this one, but it continually ranks among the top two results in research on consumers’ actual purchases.

Shazam had implemented the technology into a service that allows cellphone users to call a number when listening to a song to identify the title, track and album, in as little as 2 seconds.

BMI also announced the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary, Landmark Digital Service, which will own, deploy and exploit this new technology. Landmark will integrate the pattern recognition technology into BMI’s royalty distribution systems. BMI/Landmark’s immediate usage will be to improve BMI’s radio airplay measurement system that monitors what music is played on stations.

From the press release, “As part of the agreement, Shazam will continue to pursue business activities aimed at the mobile consumer use of the BlueArrow technology under a worldwide exclusive license to be provided by Landmark..”

The closing of the Rio lines, purchased from SonicBlue in early 2003, will allow D&M to focus on the more profitable premium consumer electronics brands.

Analysts are viewing this decision as a blow to companies like Microsoft, RealNetworks, Napster and other Apple rivals that operate online music services based on Microsoft and/or open standards. The exit of Rio leaves Creative Technology (maker of the Nomad and Zen music players), Samsung and a handful of other music players that operate on these other standards.

The study finds that 41% of people with digital music players in the U.S. are not willing to pay more than $10 per month for listening to their favorite music. For comparable prices, 62% of people in the U.K. with digital music players, 49% in France, 52 % in Germany and 56% in China are also unwilling to pay more than the $10 level.

The study also finds that roughly one third of people owning digital music players in the five nations believe that music services should be free.

One part of the study that needs to be questions is the consideration for advertising from consumers. Of course, everyone wants everything for free, but that simply is not possible and has not historically been the case for the music industry. While The Technology Suits does not agree with the rigid attitude put forth by many in the music industry, we do believe that musicians should be compensated for their work, as should publishers/distributors/marketers – although this last group’s roles may be changing with the “digital age”.

Consumers often view there radio stations, basic TV and many online services as free, but it is not. These services, as is this site, are supported by advertising. While some portion of the audience will always change the channel/station or not click on advertisements, many will listen to, watch, buy the products or click the ads. Even with many pay services such as expanded (not premium) cable television, advertisements lower the costs.

In every study on standard radio, TV or paid content, consumers always answer that they want a lower price or unlikely to accept a pricing increase. If these results were true, the number of TV viewers would have declined years ago.

The price point of XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio is roughly $13, and both companies’ subscriber numbers continue to grow. This should not be significantly, if any, different for online music/radio.

Yahoo! may be changing the dynamic of the online music market with the company’s recently announced $60 annual subscription, but other online music company’s should not be so quick to lower their prices and limit their opportunity.