Taking on Nokia on the music front, Sony Ericsson announced that it will launch a mobile phone service with unlimited music downloads within weeks.

Dubbed Play Now Plus, the service will be available solely through operators, who will provide susbcribers access to millions of songs; users will be able to keep up to 300 songs after their contracts end.

"In a few weeks’ time this service will be available with Telenor," said Sony Ericsson marketing head Lennard Hoornik.

The service will initially launch in Sweden and expand to other Western European countries starting next year.

Nokia’s Comes With Music service launches October 17 in Britain. it will let users download and keep unlimited amounts of music for a year.