In the consumer world of multimedia handsets, DRM or digital rights management is a dirty word. DRM is the name for the software that encrypts all the high end video that comes to a handset and stops you from using it on other devices right? Well it used to be. That may be about to change.

There are lots of things wrong with what we call “old” DRM, which was prohibitive, but still many hurdles before “new” DRM comes into play, which will protect movies from being ripped off, but will no longer stop consumers moving them easily between devices. But if reports emanating from the US this week are correct, one major step, which may make all the difference, is about to be taken.

Sony Pictures will embrace a new approach, and bring with it almost all of the Hollywood studios, and by association virtually every broadcaster and content owner. The system is being called Open Market and it is a generalized DRM framework which can both support the concept of domains and can work with multiple DRM technologies.

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The US mobile phone market has flipped into an immediate recession – with sales of handsets declining 13% - no wonder the major US handset manufacturer Motorola is in such a sorry state right now. The likely implications for Europe could be the same over time as consumer spending falls in the wake of price increases in every sector due to the rising price of oil.

However it is hitting harder and earlier in the US and since mobile operators buy most handsets in the US (and in Europe) due to handset subsidies, handset sales usually suffer when operators are going through a period of uncertainty.

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The mobile music market is becoming hyper-competitive and the UK is one of the biggest battlegrounds for the fight against iTunes. As Microsoft apparently considers teaming up with Nokia to boost Zune, the operators are trying to grab a bigger piece of the action. This week, Vodafone and O2 will both announce new offerings, and both now provide multiple mobile music services, giving consumers wide choices but probably confusing them too.

Vodafone already offers MusicStation, mainly on midrange handsets, and Nokia MusicStore on high end Nokia phones, providing one-click access and the distinctive user interface. On Thursday it will add Vodafone Music, which was co-developed with streaming supremo RealNetworks and is already used by Verizon Wireless, Vodafone’s US joint venture. 

MusicStation, by contrast, is a managed service provided by Omnifone, and was launched late last year, in the same week as Nokia unveiled MusicStore. How can all these options appeal to customers and make money? And these three are all coming from one carrier – it is likely that all the main UK cellcos will also launch multiple music brands, not to mention those available directly from the internet or marketed directly by device makers like Sony Ericsson.

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We all know that mobile music is the smartphone application of 2008, and most of the handset makers and operators are chasing music lovers, and the appeal of iPhone/iTunes is prompting some unlikely partnerships from those looking to dethrone it. None more improbable than Nokia with Microsoft Zune, but that is the anti-Apple alliance most widely rumoured this week – just as Apple is said to be developing a ‘nano’ iPhone to spread its net to more budget conscious and PAYG consumers.

Microsoft has always been cagey about a possible phone version of its Zune media player, though this would be a logical move as other device makers start to put a cellular link into their star products – notably Sony with the PSP. One problem for Microsoft would be that the non-Windows Zune might muddy its strategy in the handset market where it wants to push Windows Mobile – though Zune might also be better at Windows at taking MS out of its mobile enterprise sector.  In the short term at least, it seems more likely that Zune content and services will be more tightly integrated with Windows Mobile phones and also, possibly, Nokia devices. This could pave the way for Microsoft dumping Zune devices altogether and focusing on multiplatform music services instead.

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In the ranks of lost opportunities, one that must bring tears to the eyes of the Motorola must be its failed joint venture with Apple a couple of years ago to create a range of well branded music-oriented handsets. As so often happens when two creative powerhouses try to work together (see: Audioslave) the result was half-baked – Motorola went on to extend the ROKR musicphone range, hardly a match for the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, and, well, it goes without saying what Apple did next. Motorola plugs on with ROKR however, and has now added three new models in a renewed assault on mobile music.

But the new devices also have the distinction of the first launched since Motorola, which plans to spin off its lossmaking handsets division, against all odds found itself a top quality CEO for that division – Sanjay Jha, currently second in command at chipmaker and Motorola supplier Qualcomm. These new ROKRs won’t do much to revive Motorola, but under Jha, they may in future get the music services and jazzy branding they require. So will a new broom be enough to create a new Motorola, with devices that can appeal even in the tough European smartphone market, or will the task be too hard even for a man of Jha’s undoubted capabilities and vision?

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After Nokia was all over The Dark Knight movie with its Tube handset, Sony Ericsson is hitting back by tying into the upcoming James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. Recent Bond movies have been renowned for none-too-subtle product placement of aspirational items, and so the C902 Cybershot cameraphone should be very visible.

The handset will be available to buy for a limited period, bundled with a memory card loaded with Bond-related content, including a preview of an espionage game. The movie version will have additional features not available in the shops of course, such as a laser gun, concealed throwing knife and a magnet for unzipping dresses. Shame.

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Motorola gave the impression of a comeback bigger than Ali and Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle”, as it came back from successive crushing quarters and surprised industry analysts with sales of 28 million plus handsets, and turn in a surprise profit yesterday.

The legendary boxing match which sealed the reputation of Muhammad Ali, saw a the top heavyweight of his time on the rope for 8 rounds, only to end the contest with three swift punches as Foreman punched himself out, and while neither Nokia nor Samsung are suddenly going to go away, Motorola pressed the idea that despite successive failed quarters, neither did it have any plans to lay down and die.

The last remaining US handset maker (apart from the recently arrived Apple iPhone) defied all Wall Street expectations and sold 28.1 million handsets during the past quarter when the industry consensus was that 26 million was about right. This left Motorola out of freefall in world markets, no longer plummeting down the popularity charts and still number 3 against the leader Nokia and the number two, Samsung, putting up defiant resistance against Sony Ericsson (which had a night mare quarter itself) and LG.

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We have talked in the past about getting things on and off your handset, for instance a copy of your favourite TV program at super fast speeds in a way that is idiot-proof. Back in January Sony came up with a new, exceptionally simple method, no clever wireless tricks, just bring the devices so close that they are almost touching.

Now it has suddenly had a brainwave and thinks it can turn this simple “near field” approach into a standard, which it would immediately put in its cameras, PCs, Sony Ericsson handsets, as well as licensing it to most of the other handset players.

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Sony Ericsson this week came out with its response to weakening product sales and the pressure of the iPhone, with a huge emphasis on music with three new Walkman music phones, and a list of accessories which leverage off the legendary Sony music quality and introducing new “shake” control for controlling volume and or track skipping.

Sony has many of the world’s leading patents for speaker systems with different methods of cancelling noise in ear phones, and delivering full stereo speaker sound in stand alone speakers, and it has rolled them all into the new range, designed to give it incremental revenues in the run up to Christmas.

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When Vodafone Chief Executive Arun Sarin announced his departure from the mobile giant earlier this year, he must have been fairly confident of going out on a high after five successful years at the helm of the largest mobile company in the world.

But, with only a few days to go until he leaves, a massive drop in the company’s shares has cast a shadow over his exit.

Vodafone shares collapsed by 14% yesterday, the biggest one-day fall in the company’s history, after it reported weaker trading in the UK and Spain as well as lower than expected sales of handset equipment. Its stock market value was slashed by as much as £12 billion. The news dragged down shares of other major European telecoms companies including Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile and France Telecom, owners of Orange. Shares in Sony Ericsson fell by 11% when it announced a sober outlook for the rest of the year at the results of its second quarter.

In spite of the fall, Vodafone said that results were in line with expectations, but admitted that its full year revenues were likely to be somewhere at the bottom end of the £39.8bn to £40.7bn range it had originally stated.

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