Industry heavyweights team to take on iPod in Japan

Microsoft, Toshiba, Victor, NTT DoCoMo and five other companies have teamed up to offer digital music and video services and media players to compete with Apple in Japan. Bloomberg News reports: “The companies will develop a portable music and video player for the Japanese market, according to a Microsoft press release dated yesterday. The device would challenge Apple’s iPod… Microsoft will develop the software while consumer electronics makers Toshiba and Victor, will make the portable device. DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone operator, last month said it would offer a handset that is compatible with Microsoft’s software, and that lets customers transfer Windows format music files from their personal computers to their cell-phones.”