The New Nation - Internet Edition

Yahoo Inc will create versions of its mobile Internet services to run on various phone platforms, potentially including Google's phone software and the Apple iPhone, a top executive said on Monday.

Yahoo is ready to demonstrate its commitment to mix and match services of its own with those of rivals in a new, more open strategy, mobile chief Marco Boerries told a meeting on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show.

By offering Internet services that work on existing phones rather seeking to compete with mobile phone software of its own, Yahoo can reach hundreds of millions of phone users, Boerries said.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo announced a series of enhancements on Monday designed to make Yahoo Internet services more easily accessible for existing mobile phones.

Over the last two years, Yahoo has struck deals with carriers and handset makers to place popular Yahoo Web services on phones in many markets.

The plan includes allowing outside companies to create mini-Web sites that can be featured on the pages of Yahoo, in a bid to expand the number of consumers using Yahoo as a starting point to the Web.

Viacom Inc's MTV and News Corp's MySpace and eBay Inc are among the companies creating such mini Web features, which are known as widgets, to run inside Yahoo Web pages.

Yahoo is ready to create versions of Yahoo Mobile Widgets to allow users to keep tabs on their favorite Web sites on phones running Apple Inc, Google Inc, Microsoft Corp or Nokia-backed Symbian software, Yahoo's Boerries said in response to questions from analysts and reporters.

"Our job is to make sure Yahoo Mobile Widgets run on any platform that creates a good user experience," Boerries said.

"(Google) Android for us is another mobile operating system like (Microsoft's) Windows Mobile and (Nokia-backed) Series 60 that we plan to support once it becomes a reality," he said in response to a question from a Wall Street analyst.

In November, Google announced the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 partners ranging from component suppliers to handset makers to network operators. Several of these partners have said they expected to introduce phones based on the Google Android phone software by the middle of 2008.

Another analyst asked Boerries whether Yahoo would strike deals to feature other Internet content providers on its mobile widgets system, specifically social network site Facebook.

Boerries declined to comment, saying "I am not prepared to make any other announcement today but we are talking to a bunch of providers."

Asked whether Yahoo would be developing a special version of mobile widgets on the iPhone using Apple's Web toolkit, he stopped short of saying whether Apple Inc might announce such a partnership as early as its Macworld conference next week.

"We are not making any announcement here," Boerries said in response to a reporter's question.

He then paused and the room of reporters and analysts erupted in laughter. Apple tightly controls the timing of news releases in order to make any announcements themselves.

"We are going to make sure Yahoo services run on every device" that makes the Internet easy to use on phones, Boerries said.

Developers stand to make money from running advertising when users click on their widgets inside Yahoo. Yahoo will supply both brand advertising and Web search ads to developers. Widget creators also have the option of running other ads.

Sony BMG will start selling music downloads in the copy-protection-free MP3 format later this month in North America, as even the last holdout among the major record labels crumbled to the growing trend.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment said in a statement that some digital albums will be available through a new download service called Platinum MusicPass starting Jan. 15 in the U.S. and late January in Canada.

A Sony Corp. official in Tokyo, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak officially for Sony BMG, confirmed the company's move toward the MP3 format in the U.S., but said that similar moves aren't in the works in Japan and elsewhere.

Music files in the MP3 format can be copied to computers and burned onto CDs without restriction. They can also be played on most digital music players, including Apple Inc.'s iPod, as well as on personal computers.

As a Japanese electronic manufacturer that also has major entertainment businesses, including its music joint venture with Bertelsmann AG, Sony has long resisted the global trend toward MP3 files.

Tokyo-based Sony had been sticking to what the industry calls Digital Rights Management, or DRM, which includes software coding that prevents copying downloaded music but can also frustrate consumers by limiting the type of device or number of computers on which they can listen.

Copy-protected songs sold through Apple's market-leading iTunes Store generally won't play on devices other than its popular iPod digital player, and iPods won't play DRM-enabled songs bought at rival music stores.

Sony has taken a beating in digital players with the booming popularity of the iPod, even in its home Japanese market.

Sony BMG's MusicPass will offer 37 titles at first, including rock, pop and other genres, according to the company. But people must first buy a card available at 4,500 retail outlets across the U.S., including Best Buy Co. and Target Corp. stores, Sony said.

The $12.99 cards will have an identification number on the back, and consumers will be able to visit an Internet site for MusicPass to download the audio files, Sony BMG said.

"We see MusicPass as a great way to bring digital music to the physical retail space. We believe it will have strong appeal for a broad range of customers, and that it will ultimately expand both the digital and physical markets for music," said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales at Sony BMG, in a statement.

Last month, Warner Music Group, which had also resisted selling music online without copy protection, agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon.com Inc.'s digital music store.

Universal Music Group and EMI Music Group PLC agreed earlier to sell large portions of their catalogs as MP3 files, as have many independent labels.

"The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG's ongoing campaign to bring its artists' music to fans in new and innovative ways," Hesse said.

One of the albums that will be offered in the new format is Celine Dion's "Taking Chances." Sony BMG's other artists include Bob Dylan, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Avril Lavigne.

-Internet

After taking the Internet by storm, soon YouTube will be available on televisions. The Japanese giant behind the Panasonic brand said Tuesday that it will introduce Internet-ready plasma TVs in North America in the spring that allow users to browse videos on YouTube and photos from Google-based web albums.

"This is the first time mainstream consumers will be able to easily enjoy YouTube videos from the living room with the enhanced quality of a fully integrated widescreen TV experience," said Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

Rival Sony Corp. also announced that from this spring it will launch televisions offering access to free Internet video content from providers including AOL, Yahoo, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music. The TVs will be able to receive streaming broadband video, including high-definition content, Sony said. Both announcements were made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "Internet video will clearly be the next step in the evolution of high-definition television, giving users more control over the content they view," said Sony Electronics senior vice president Randy Waynick.

Sony Pictures Television also announced that it will put some of its content on YouTube through several channels supported by advertising.

The first channel, called Minisode Network, will offer five-minute versions of popular television shows.

Since buying YouTube in 2006 for 1.65 billion dollars, Google has been under fire from video owners including entertainment giant Viacom and the English soccer league for not doing more to stop users from posting copyrighted clips.