Mercora has unveiled a service called “M” which promises to deliver wireless, over-the-air music streaming to your Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone or Pocket PC. A subscription to the service will let a user stream music (WMA, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis formats only) from not only their PC but up to 4 other ones as well (after authorization). For example, a friend using the same service could authorize you to access his digital music library. The service can stream over EDGE, HSPDA and Wi-Fi networks. M also provides access to some 100,000 Internet radio stations.
There are some advantages to such a format. You are no longer restricted by the storage capacity of your device and there is no need to transfer music to a storage card or the device itself. On the flip side, wireless carriers may not be so happy about having to carry all the additional bandwidth. You also need to install M on both the PC and the Smartphone or Pocket PC device.
Two plans are currently available: Paying by the month costs $4.99 USD. A yearly plan costs $49.99 USD.
For more information about supported devices, have a look at Mercora’s M site.