Musiwave, an Openwave company and a leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies worldwide, has today announced its Smart Radio service for Java-enabled handsets has been selected by 3 Italia, the Mobile Media Company controlled by the Hutchison Whampoa Group and UMTS mobile leader in the world with over 6.8 million customers.
Launched this month, the 3 Smart Radio service offers 3 Italia’s subscribers access to interactive and personalized music streams and themed channels, as well as a catalog of thousands of full-tracks from major record labels via an integrated music download storefront where full track music downloads will be available.
“3 Italia’s selection of Musiwave is testament to the quality of services that Musiwave offers its customers and reinforces our leading position in global mobile music delivery,” said Guillaume Decugis, vice president, operations, Musiwave. “Musiwave is dedicated to enabling operators to deliver creative, innovative and largely available music offerings to their subscribers. The Musiwave Smart Radio service will help 3 Italia drive demand for mobile music and provides yet another example of Musiwave’s ability to bring personalized, intelligent music services to the mass market.”
“By working with Musiwave to bring Smart Radio to our subscribers, we are taking another important step in the development of a thriving global market for mobile music,” said Stefano Piastrelli, 3 Italia’s 3 Media director.
The Smart Radio service allows mobile consumers to access customized and streamed music programming, based on each user’s personal tastes. Music from a variety of genres is available, including Italian music, urban, pop rock, Latin, jazz and hard-rock, among others. Overall, the user experience is designed with simplicity and interactivity in mind, allowing users to skip from one song to another, bookmark favorite songs and directly access specific themed channels. The service progressively builds a customized stream based on the previously played songs. The service is available immediately on Java or Symbian videophones including the LG U830 Chocolate, Nokia N70 and Nokia 6680.
Musiwave provides mobile music entertainment services to more than 35 mobile operators in 25 countries including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefonica, Orange, SFR, 3 UK, Telus and Amena.