Napster Inc. announced yesterday that they had launched a site in Japan in order to rival Apple Computer Inc. and the many music capable mobile phones on the market. Napster joined forces with the huge Japanese company Tower Records to get their foot in the door in Japan, and will be offering music downloads for flat rates of 1980yen ($16.80) a month.

"Japanese consumers are trend setters, and that's especially true in consumer electronics and mobile phones," Duea said. NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's No. 1 mobile operator, offers a phone model that is compatible with the Napster service, he said, and it plans to make more phones that are Napster-compatible."

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