Apple has agreed a deal with Japanese phone company Softbank to develop a mobile phone that can play music downloaded from iTunes Music Store, according to reports in the Japanese press.
The phone will incorporate features similar to the iPod, though full details are hazy and Apple has so far refused to comment on the story, first reported by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
Softbank is Japan's third largest web and telecom conglomerate and recently acquired Vodafone Japan, paying £8.9 billion, ensuring a stake in Japan's £41 billion mobile phone industry.
Prior to that transaction Vodafone Japan had been struggling to keep up with competitors NTT, DoCoMo and KDDI.
Influential Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg wrote, "Now, Apple is working on other projects built on the same end-to-end model as the iPod: a media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub."
Apple attempted to release a music-playing mobile phone in partnership with Motorola last year, with the phone, dubbed the 'Rokr' which received somewhat mixed reviews from users and design critics.
© 2006 Adfero Ltd
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