Samsung launches movies to mobiles service

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd launched a service allowing its customers
to buy or rent movies and TV series to download to their mobile
phones.

The breadth of Samsung's offering, which includes over 500
blockbusters from top studios Warner Bros MTWX.N, Paramount and
Universal, makes it competitive with other mobile media offerings from
Apple Inc and Nokia Oyj.

Samsung Movies, a dedicated virtual store for Samsung customers,
launches initially in Britain and Germany and will extend to other key
European markets later in the year, Samsung said in a statement.

The service will be compatible only with video-enabled Samsung phones,
such as its new Tocco Ultra Edition. But Samsung plans to expand the
service to notebooks, MP3 and MP4 portable music players, and Samsung
TVs.

Samsung Movies will use technology from privately owned digital movie
retailer Acetrax, which holds agreements with film studios and music
labels.Samsung said it would double its titles to 1,000 by the end of
the first quarter and again to 2,000 movies and TV shows by the end of
June.UK-based research firm CCS Insight said in a note: "The move is
tangible progress in (Samsung's) convergence strategy and a first step
in delivering consumer services to rival those from the likes of Nokia
and Sony Ericsson.