Playnow Plus is just another repackaged Omnifone music service after all... We were expecting something extra from the embattled mobile phone manufacturer but apart from the fact that SonyEricsson has a more complete roster, there's not much to differentiate its offer from the competition.
Sure, Playnow Plus has EMI onboard whereas Nokia's Comes With Music hasn't but then, Omnifone's offer comes with Digital Rights Management which prevents the use of the music tracks you've downloaded if you ever stop using your phone.
According to BBC's resident tech whiz, Rory Cellan-Jones, the paid for subscription will only allow users to keep 300 tracks (or top 20 tracks if you believe Shinyshiny) at the end of your subscription, even though the service boosts a download as much as you want philosophy.
Punters are expected to fork around £100 per annum to get the music tracks which turns out to be a not-so-unreasonable 33p per song, less than half what iTunes charges.
Sony will be releasing a five-megapixel camera, the 8GB W902 walkman phone with 1000 popular "local" and global music tracks.
Nokia on the other side allows the users to download as much music as they want for 12 months and keep it forever - although the Finnish company has not been overwhelmingly enthusiast about spreading the "free music" word to its complete range of handsets.
Expect the service to go live anytime next year in major Sony Ericsson territories while the original PlayNow Arena online service is set to be launched in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland by the end of the year.
Sure, Playnow Plus has EMI onboard whereas Nokia's Comes With Music hasn't but then, Omnifone's offer comes with Digital Rights Management which prevents the use of the music tracks you've downloaded if you ever stop using your phone.
According to BBC's resident tech whiz, Rory Cellan-Jones, the paid for subscription will only allow users to keep 300 tracks (or top 20 tracks if you believe Shinyshiny) at the end of your subscription, even though the service boosts a download as much as you want philosophy.
Punters are expected to fork around £100 per annum to get the music tracks which turns out to be a not-so-unreasonable 33p per song, less than half what iTunes charges.
Nokia on the other side allows the users to download as much music as they want for 12 months and keep it forever - although the Finnish company has not been overwhelmingly enthusiast about spreading the "free music" word to its complete range of handsets.
Expect the service to go live anytime next year in major Sony Ericsson territories while the original PlayNow Arena online service is set to be launched in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland by the end of the year.
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