Music sales slide despite RIAA's crushing blows against piracy: "One day, a smarter than average pigopolist will realize that DRM-laced downloads, gimpy online services and lawsuits aren't the best means for winning consumers' hearts. That's when music sales will rise again."

Motorola are working on a new UI - several years too late, but better that than never. Like the author of the article, I can't tell from a few screenshots how decent it is tho...

Mobiface is a beautiful-looking site with some interesting thoughts on "next gen mobile interfaces". The name makes me giggle too. "Services as buddies" isn't a new idea but it's a lovely way of summing it up.

Stuff that's been lurking in NetNewsWire for at least a month now. I'd hope to tease these into individual posts but despite having a fab Christmas break didn't get a chance:

• Why do people carry mobile phones?
• Bluetooth conkers - excellent idea!
• Mobile phones and public displays; I suspect that the same sort of dynamics will be in play when using mobile to interact with TV content: a single screen shared between multiple viewers, etc. Is mobile+TV a better iTV than iTV?
• Apparently handset updates are the future... I'm sceptical of this, given that the industry hasn't yet coped with device diversity as it affects the provision of services (leaving space for projects like the WURFL to step in). Updating the firmware of devices from many manufacturers over different networks etc? I know the iTV guys do it on occasion but I'll bet it's not as painless as this article (cough press release) suggests...
• Amp'd are producing and licensing their own content. I like the sound of Amp'd and the idea of MVNOs targeting specific markets but now that I've drunk the I-mode Kool-Aid I'm wondering how workable this is long-term. In how many mature mobile markets are operators taking this approach?
• MobileATM promises access to basic but useful banking services from your phone. Apparently this was due to be available by the end of 2005 but I've not seen any sign of it...

Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab: "TV is on the cusp of radical change. Like the newspaper market, the TV market is about to be fundamentally reshaped by technological disruptions and discontinuities in consumer preferences. "