Sony Ericsson + Unlimited Music Download?

This week, we have been hearing alot from Sony Ericsson. First, they announced the SE G705, and then they have SE Xperia X1 dated. And now, a report published in the Financial Times indicates Sony Ericsson will take a cue from Nokia and offer an unlimited music downloading service for all Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Sony BMG, EMI and Warner are all onboard with the project, although it's still unknown if Universal will hop on the music service bandwagon.

Sony Ericsson is one of several phone manufacturers that have a line of phones specifically dedicated to playing music and utilizing other entertainment purposes. The company already has its PlayNow Arena music store for phone owners, with the service receiving an upgrade within the past month. PlayNow Arena users must pay for each downloaded song.

Sony Ericsson has fallen to the fifth-largest phone manufacturer in the world, and has had recent troubles, issuing two profit warnings so far in 2008. Analysts have been perplexed as to why Sony Ericsson would promote the Walkman phones but do so little to try and create a service for consumers to acquire content in a more efficient, cheaper manner.

The largest phone manufacturer in the world, Nokia, recently announced its Comes With Music service will be ready to launch next month, with some phone owners given the ability to download unlimited music to their phones. Even though both companies have pay-per-track music stores, poor music sales have led the record industries to pressure manufacturers to try and help increase digital music sales.

The new unlimited song download service from Sony Ericsson is expected to launch in Europe prior to the 2008 holiday shopping season.