According to various sources, Microsoft may soon acquire Musicwave, the mobile music service provider.

It’s a small French company based in Paris which allows mobile phone operators to deliver any kind of customized music content or service. Clients include important companies such as O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Telefonica and Virgin Mobile.

The acquisition however will have to pass through the controlling Company Openwave, which in 2005 bought the small service provider for 121 million dollars.

Musicwave will probably give Microsoft the change to finally counterattack iPhone and iTunes’s challenge. Many mobile phone producers are moving towards this direction, although market surveys regarding mobile music – a part from those on ringtones – haven’t yet given positive results.
Nokia has recently opened its own English store; Samsung launched MusicNet.