Microsoft and Real Networks are showing off their media players for mobile phones at CeBIT this week. Nokia yesterday announced a deal with Real that would bring a micro version of its eponymous software - Mobile Real Player - to Nokia's imminent 9210 Communicator.

Ericsson will show further fruits of its dalliance with Microsoft today, demonstrating a port of Windows Media Player running on Ericsson's R520 GPRS phone at CeBIT today. The R520 is the chunky bronze handset Ericsson announced late last year. It's a triband phone that's HSCD. GPRS and Bluetooth-ready, and should be available by mid-year, although whether it will come with the Windows Media Player bundled or not wasn't clear from today's release.

Microsoft's contribution to the announcement came from its Digital Rights Management division, suggesting that it's a ploy to woo content providers - particularly audio content owners - as much as other handset manufacturers.

Symbian this week announced a deal with PacketVideo to port its PVPlayer to the Epoc platform. ActiveSky, which miraculously allows video clips to be played on PalmOS devices, is supporting all three leading smartphone platforms, although the Symbian version hasn't been unveiled yet. ®