Alltel phones get a little Nutsie

If you've ever hankered to listen to your iTunes selections from your Alltel phone, now you can. Alltel Wireless announced Wednesday that it's offering Nutsie--which lets you upload your library to the Web and then stream it to your phone--on more than 10 of its devices. There are some restrictions, however.

Developed by Melodeo and launched last year, Nutsie will be available on Alltel phones including the Motorola Razr V3m and V3c; the Motorola Krzr K1m; the Motorola Razr2 V9m and Motorola Rokr Z6; the LG AX565, Wave, and AX8600; the Samsung Muse and Wafer, and the Alltel Hue by Samsung. More Alltel phones supporting Nutsie will be announced in coming months, the company says.

The service will cost $4.99 a month or $19.99 for one year. It can be accessed via the Alltel Shop located on the handset. Alltel customers will also be able to listen to recommended music based on their playlists and explore hundreds of thousands of playlists from other users.

When Nutsie launched last year, it provided a nice alternative to $500 iPhones. Now that you can get one for 200 bucks--and at that price its install base will only continue to grow--I have to wonder just how long a service like this can remain viable.