Everyone knows that the iPhone is due to be released this summer, but will it have DRM (digital rights management), something which current mobile phones on the market don’t?
Apple, creators of the much hyped iPhone were perhaps the biggest culprits for promoting DRM with their best selling iPod + iTunes phenomenon. The question to be asked is: Will the iPhone also feature this protection and prevent its users from being able to send music to each other for free via bluetooth or wifi? Also, will it be able to recieve such files from other devices which already exist? Finally, will it be able to sync these back with iTunes?
Currently, using my Sony Ericsson V600i, I can transfer any mp3 file that i have put on it [from my pc] to any mobile device that a) has bluetooth or infa-red and b) supports .mp3 playback. Very little has been done by either the music industry or the mobile manufacturers themselves to combat piracy via mobile phones. With an ever growing market likely to overtake standalone portable music players in the future, it would be stupid to think that the labels would not be planning strategies to combat music piracy on phones.
From the introduction of the iPhone to the celluar market, will we suddenly be limited with which files we can send and receive?
It looks like all we can do is wait and see.
