Of course, as the online download platforms slowly become more user-friendly in terms of interoperability, by becoming MP3 centric, the growing mobile music market remains pretty damn un-userfriendly, with different tel cos, phone manufacturers and IT firms offering rival services which often tie customers to certain handsets or networks.
Market pressures will no doubt force the mobile music firms to become more userfriendly in the long term, but in the meantime the European courts are doing their bit to reduce the restrictions. The French courts recently forced Orange, the exclusive provider of the iPhone in France, to reduce the commitment customers have to make to the phone firm in order to buy the much hyped Apple mobile phone/iPod device, meaning customers can buy an iPhone from Orange, but then continue to use it with a rival network. And now the German courts may make similar demands on Apple and their partners in Germany, T-Mobile.
This has come about because of some sneaky dealings by Vodafone, who failed to secure an iPhone partnership with Apple in any territories. They have taken T-Mobile to court arguing that the commitment iPhone customers have to make to the phone firm is unprecedented, and that they suspect it may not comply with German laws on such things. Vodafone Deutschland boss Friedrich Joussen told German newspaper Handelsbatt: "These are new telecom business models that are not usual on the market. It's a radical change of practice. This is a fall from grace. We want to have a decision on whether this complies with German law".
And the German courts seem to share Vodafone's concerns about the Apple/T-Mobile arrangement, issuing an injunction ordering them to make the iPhone available without the current two year commitment to the mobile network. T-Mo disagree that their iPhone deal is entirely unprecedented in the German mobile market, and now have two weeks to appeal the court's ruling.
All of which is possibly bad news for Apple, who had hoped to replicate in Europe their deal with US mobile firm AT&T where they reportedly earn from the revenues the tel cos make from iPhone users on an ongoing basis, and not just from the initial sale of the actual phone. Such an arrangement may not now be possible in most European countries, accept here in the UK, of course, where it seems consumer rights laws do little to protect you from having to sign a long term contract with O2 in order to secure yourself an Apple mobile.