Japan's largest telephone company, KDDI, has announced it will shortly launch a new download service allowing music fans to download full tracks to their mobile phones. Transforming the mobile into an MP3 player able of accessing great libraries of music via the phone network has been an ambition for most telephone companies. Here in the UK, of course, O2 has done most in this space. They have been offering a download service for nearly a year now - initially downloading tracks to a separate device attached to the mobile, and more recently to an MP3 play built within the phone.
The KDDI service could spark a dramatic growth in this area. They plan to have 10,000 tracks available to download on launch which, while small by iTunes standards, is significant. Perhaps more important, the network says that the speed of its 3G service means that each track will only take 30-40 seconds to download - they reckon if their competitors in the Japanese market, DoCoMo or Vodaphone, were to offer a music service it would take 4 - 5 minutes for each track to download.
KDDI say they have already signed up 20 record labels to the service and want to talk to any other music companies interested in getting involved.