The fulltrack mobile music scene is really hotting up in Japan at the moment. The first service to launch was au’s iTunes-esque Lismo in April this year, with the operator providing a range of music player optimised handsets for use with the service. DoCoMo responded by launching its own fulltrack music services with handsets to match. Japan’s third operator, Vodafone KK, has been keeping quiet about it’s mobile music masterplans until today.

Well… sort of. Today’s announcement is not an exiting new fulltrack music service, nor a shiny new music phone. Vodafone is taking a different approach to the mobile music battle by bundling its 705SH handset with a 2gb iPod nano. The bundle will cost ¥10000 (≈£50) more than the standalone handset, but the catch is that subscribers must commit to a 2 year contract be eligible for the deal. It seems that this new offer is more of an attempt to lure consumers into 2-year Vodafone contracts before the introduction of MNP rather than a serious entry into the mobile music market.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 8:36 am