- Europe : Vodafone Germany announced a new service as follows :

- Video clips now available for downloading

- "Playboy Clips" – photo session with dream girls

The popularity of the mobile phone as a "pocket cinema" is growing by leaps and bounds, with more and more people using their handsets to find out the latest soccer scores, to keep up to date with news from all over the world, or simply to enjoy a cartoon film.

Vodafone is introducing a number of innovations for video clip enthusiasts. Whereas in the past only users with streaming-enabled handsets could view the short films, a selection of videos can now be downloaded to the mobile phone from the Vodafone live! portal and then played back offline, with the result that this capability is extended to a much wider range of handsets.

Moreover, all video clips are billed at a fixed price – and with no connection charges. There is also an exciting new addition to the video selection: "Playboy Clips", featuring playmates and dream girls pictured during a photo shoot.

All the standard categories of video clips – News Clips, Bundesliga Clips, Cinema Clips, City Tour, Fun Clips, Music Clips, Comic Clips, Action Clips, Playboy Clips and Uefa Clips – are still available for one-off downloading on to handsets with streaming capability. Users now have the option of downloading on to their mobiles a number of sequences from the categories Comic Clips, Fun Clips, Action Clips and Playboy Clips. Once stored, these videos can be played offline any number of times. They are displayed in the "Download" section of the Vodafone live! portal for those handsets which support downloading. This provides a further means of access to the video clips in addition to headings such as "Sport" and "Entertainment".

Fixed prices for all video clips – and no connection charges

A new price model is also being introduced: all Vodafone video clips – whether "download" or "streaming" – are now available for a fixed price, which has to be confirmed before they are retrieved. There are no connection charges. As Jurgen von Kuczkowski, Chairman of the Managing Board of Vodafone D2, points out: "This means greater clarity for the user – and often a much more attractive price, especially in the case of lengthy clips." A video clip for one-off viewing costs on average €0.99*, while the fee for downloading a video is usually €1.49. And there is now a clearer form of billing: previously, the costs for calling down a video clip were combined with the GPRS connection charges, but now the user can see exactly which clips he or she has downloaded.

New: Sexy Playmates at a photo shoot

Finally, a dream comes true for everyone who wanted to be present at a Playboy photo session: a series of videos (which can be "streamed" for one-off viewing, or downloaded) featuring glamorous Playmates at a photo shoot. The "vital statistics" of each of the models is included in this package, while the "Girl of the Week" is guaranteed to brighten up any man's daily routine! These Playboy clips each last approximately 40 seconds and can be downloaded from the "Erotic" section of the "Entertainment" offering in the Vodafone live! portal.

Handsets for video streaming : Nokia 3650, Nokia 7650 (download video player from Vodafone life! portal free of charge), Nokia N-Nage, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900

Handsets for video downloading : Nokia 3650, Nokia N-Gage, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900, Sharp GX20, Nokia 6220, Motorola V600.