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| Verizon Wireless has launched the LG Chocolate VX8500. | BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Verizon Wireless, the second largest mobile operator in the U.S., is introducing the Chocolate cell phone by LG, a sleek device featuring an iPod-like click wheel, in a bid to boost its music sales.
Verizon is charging 150 dollars for the phone with a new two-year contract, and an additional 100 dollars to buy an insertable mini-storage card that can hold 2-gigabits of music, media reports said Monday.
The new "Chocolate" handset also features software that will let users play their own MP3-format music on the device in addition to songs purchased from Verizon's music store.
The phone answers the main criticism leveled at Verizon when it launched its music store in January: Current music collections in the MP3 format couldn't be moved to or played on Verizon phones.
Additionally, the company is eliminating a monthly fee of 15 dollars for its music download service. Consumers buying a song or two on their handsets will no longer have to pay the monthly charge to access a tune.
Verizon will continue charging 1.99 dollars for downloads to the handset, or 99 cents a song for customers who download directly to PCs.
By dropping the monthly fee, Verizon "now opens up the market to the youth segment," said Roger Entner, an analyst with market tracker Ovum. "Let's be real: You want to download a song or two, you're not going to sign up for 15 dollars a month to do that."
Wireless music downloads are seen as a robust new source of revenue for cellular operators now that they are investing billions of dollars to upgrade their networks for speedier data connections.
In less than a year, cellphone users have bought about 7.5 million songs, while Apple's iTunes Music Store continues to dominate on PCs, selling more than 1 billion songs in three years. Enditem
(Agencies)
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