Motorola & Microsoft get together for Windows Media on phones

Michael Gartenberg | February 14, 2006, 01:54 PM

Motorola says that they're not moving away from iTunes but Motorola did announce they're building a new line of music phones that will support both Windows Media, Plays For Sure DRM and MTP protocol. This is pretty big news for Microsoft as they attempt to use different strategies to take on Apple. We've heard in the past from BillG that the cellphone is where they want to stake their real claim against the iPod so getting MOTO on board is a good tactic. Probablt also help when they're negotiating the next iTunes agreement. From a practical perspective, it's good for MOTO to allow choice to consumers some who view the phone as something that complements the iPod they already have (with iTunes) and others who want the phone to serve as a standalone media player. Supporting Plays for Sure means that subscription services should work on these phones but the MTP support means these are meant for Windows only, OS X users need to looks elsewhere.