Peer-to-peer comes to cell phones
Sep 15 2004 - 03:00 PM ET | Data
New Scientist
has an article about peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfer software coming to a mobile phone near you. P2P is the technology behind applications like the original Napster and current KaZaa. Employees at the Nokia Research Center have written P2P software that works on the
Nokia 6600, a Series 60 handset.
bq. The prototype network developed by [Lorant] Farkas can currently be used to share images and text. "Nowadays you can take pictures and record videos with a smart phone," Farkas told New Scientist. "We were primarily thinking of this kind of content."
But future versions should go further. Farkas says developing the ability to share digital music, compressed in formats such as MP3, is also a priority.
This could be bad news for ring tone sales, a market that is already
having trouble taking off in the US thanks to complicated rights negotiations.
Before this could take off, unlimited data plans will have to become cheap enough to be widely available.
