O2 is hoping to transform the way people buy and listen to music with the launch of a digital music player that downloads chart hits via a mobile phone. The O2 Digital Music Player (DMP) connects to many handsets (including most recent Nokia and Siemens phones) by infrared. Users browse a selection of up to 100,000 songs, choose the music they want to buy and then use the phone to download the track and transfer it to the device. Most songs take around three minutes to reach the player.
Chart hits cost £1.50, with older tracks retailing for £1. Although the player is compatible with MP3s, for the downloaded music it uses a new format called AAC Plus. This delivers tracks that are on average 1MB, as opposed to 3MB for the standard MP3 track, enabling users to store more than 60 tracks on the player's removable 64MB Secure Digital (SD) card. Sound quality is good - certainly comparable to MP3. The player is available from O2's website for £100.
