Ericsson says M-buzz more successful than Myspace

All he would say directly about Apple is that he "welcomed the competition." He pointed out, however, that Ericsson had offered a touchscreen handset - the R380 - before the joint venture was even founded.

Ericsson also took a few pot shots at Ovi, the new online offering from Nokia, by emphasising that its own policy was to work very closely with the mobile network operators.

It claimed that the combined usage of its 'Play Now' platform - which it operates on behalf of some 20 operators - has a combined audience of 200 million mobile phone users.

Plus there have been more than 200 million downloads from the system. Ericsson very carefully refused to break down that figure and reveal how many of those downloads were 'premium' (paid for) downloads and not just free.

Nevertheless, it does claim to have 90 revenue sharing agreements in place covering mobile phone content. The most impressive claim surrounded a service called M-buzz.

This is a music orientated site for mobile handset users. One of the sponsored bands, The Head Set, had its video downloaded by 25,000 people which was two and a half times more downloads than the band had received from the same video on Myspace. µ

L'INQ
M-buzz