Firm finds its groove in wireless music

The Boston Globe profiles local company, Groove Mobile, which is becoming a big name in the nascent wireless mobile music biz. Roger Entner at Ovum said, "Mobile music is an up-and-coming industry, and Groove Mobile is definitely one of the pioneers. Groove Mobile is the leading developer of music-delivery engines for mobile networks. They are at the beginning of it all. They got on the bandwagon before there was a bandwagon, and mobile music is certainly a growth industry."

According to the article, "Groove Mobile has 10 contracts to provide mobile music to cellphone companies around the world, including Telecom New Zealand Ltd. and T-Mobile Hungary Telecommunications Co. A deal signed in October with Sprint Corp. added 40 million US customers, bringing Groove Mobile's worldwide customer base to 75 million cellphone users."

Entner added, "It's one of the sweet spots of the mobile phone industry -- how to get music from the record companies and into the cellphones. Groove Mobile arranges who gets what music and what money."

In the U.S., Groove is facing competition as Verizon and Cingular will offer music from other services. Plus convincing consumers to pay $2.50 for the convenience of downloading it over the air just might be asking a bit too much...