Real to join Vodafone Cell phone network to add Media Player

RealNetworks Inc. plans to announce a partnership Monday with Vodafone Group PLC, the worlds largest cell phone operator, that would place RealNetworkss Real Media Player in phones using Vodafone service. The agreement would enable many of Vodafones subsidiaries and partners in 36 countries to use the Real Media Player as well as RealNetworks Helix Universal Mobile Server software to deliver audio and video to some of the British-based companys 119.7 million cellular subscribers. The financial value of the agreement was not announced, but Dan Sheeran, RealNetworks senior vice president, said that the company, which is based in Seattle, had defeated Microsoft Corp. in winning the partnership. Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, a Seattle suburb, and makes a competing line of audio and video- viewing software, including Windows Media Player, has been struggling to enter the mobile phone market and has made little progress so far. Analysts said that the cell phone industry has been less than enthusiastic about Microsofts efforts, largely because of concerns about the potential creation of a Microsoft monopoly similar to its dominance in the personal computer market. RealNetworks Real Media Player, Microsofts Windows Media Player and Apples Quicktime Player are three contenders in a hotly competitive marketplace. The three technologies are used mostly on PCs, but the companies are trying to deploy their software in the rapidly growing portable wireless markets. Microsofts and RealNetworks media players each have more than 300 million registered users. Whether there will be a lucrative market for paid video or audio streaming services to cell phones or wirelessly connected personal digital assistants is still uncertain. There is, however, some evidence from Europe and Asia that such services can be popular. The market certainly believes this is real, said Peter Bancroft, a vice president at Symbian, a British developer of software for hand- held devices. The glorious thing is that nobody knows. Boosters of the technology believe that cell phone subscribers will be willing to pay for services like streaming of soccer game highlights and songs on demand. The idea of transmitting a song to someone is really quite a novel one, Bancroft said. But guess what? We already have something that does this quite nicely. Its called a radio. RealNetworks executives acknowledged that the agreement with Vodafone would bring in significant revenue only if video and audio streaming services become popular over cell phone networks. Under the agreement, Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group, a unit of Siemens AG of Germany, will handle the deployment of the technology with the network operators around the world. Vodafone, which is based in Newbury, England, has been struggling financially despite its large size. The company, which owns 44 percent of Verizon Wireless in the United States, increased its revenue 33 percent to l30.38 billion ($50.49 billion) in the past year, but had a net loss of l9.06 billion during that period. RealNetworks, founded in 1995 by Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft executive, posted a $2.8 million loss on revenue of $47 million in the first quarter of this year.