From next week, anyone buying a Nokia N93 handset on the Vodafone network will receive a free copy of Mission Impossible 3 loaded onto a mini SD card for viewing on the phone. The film is full-length and encoded for perfect viewing on the N93's screen, though if it will generate quite the same atmosphere as a cinema viewing is open to debate.

The offer coincides with the UK DVD release of the film.

Old movies are regularly given away with newspapers, and my breakfast cereal comes with an encyclopedia taped to the front of it, but until now the latest film releases have tried to maintain their premium value - after all, if your main product is a promotional device then you've nothing left to promote.

Obviously the quality is still a long way off DVD (despite what Nokia says about the N93), but the N93 comes with a TV-connect cable and one has to wonder how many people who get a free copy of the film will then go out and buy the DVD?

Perhaps Paramount is hoping punters will all rush out and buy the HD-DVD version, allowing it to hand out those inferior DVD-quality copies that no one will want to watch in a few years time. ®