“Mobile phones that rock, jam, thunder, and swing are on the way. Wireless operators around the globe are working with music studios, phone makers, and artists such as Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs in a sweeping effort to turn the mobile phone into a go-anywhere digital jukebox. Foreign carriers such as Vodafone and SK Telecom are leading the way, and U.S. wireless players are following fast. BusinessWeek has learned that Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Cingular Wireless are expected to unveil services for downloading music directly to wireless phones later this year. ‘We have a tremendous opportunity to make a big impact in music,’ says Dennis F. Strigl, CEO of Verizon Wireless,” Roger O. Crockett writes for BusinessWeek.
Crockett writes, “With innovative services and snazzier phones, the telecom players figure they can swipe a chunk of the digital music market that Apple Computer Inc. cracked open with its iconic iPod. That sets the stage for a battle between two industries. On one side are Apple and the other tech players concentrated in Silicon Valley that see the computer as central to the future of music. On the other are telecom companies, from Finland to South Korea to the U.S., that think the mobile phone can become the center of this emerging world. ‘The iPod is great,’ says Frank Nuovo, chief designer for Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker. ‘But no one has a stranglehold. There’s nothing that keeps the mobile phone from moving into that area.'”
Full article, highly recommended, here.
MacDailyNews Take: At some point, as phones hit 6-10GB capacities, Apple will need to have an answer. We want one device, please. We want either an iPod that can place / receive phone calls or a mobile phone that has 10+GB and a headphone jack. That’s all it needs to be. And it can be good at being a phone and playing tunes, too — just look at the miniscule size of an iPod shuffle and some of the tiny phones on the market today. We’ll get this device eventually from someone (hopefully from Apple). And we bet it’ll take pretty decent snapshots, too.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Motorola CEO Zander: Apple iTunes phone due ‘in the next few months’ – April 20, 2005
Why the hell does everything have to have a phone and a camera on it these days?
why not?
Good Sir Java,
Who the hell knows. I still want a phone that doesn’t drop a call as the towers pass my call back and forth to each other as I drive. Heck, even when I’m at home sitting still the damned cell phone still drops calls.
But anyway, to answer the question in the headline, those mobile phones will not pose a threat in the near term. Horrible capacity, jacked up prices, and no way to get the music from your phone to your computer — that sounds like a losing business model to me.
JadisOne I agree. You must be on Sprint.
He’s right–there’s nothing to keep the mobile phone from becoming a music player.
Except for where I get my music.
Contrary to the phone companies’ beliefs, I am not going to pay $2 for a song which I can only play on my phone when I can pay 99 cents for a song which I can play on my iPod, my car stereo (by burning to CD), or my computer. Nor am I going to pay extra to have a song which I bought elsewhere (ie CD, iTMS) transfered to or from my phone.
I’ll admit, my contract with my current cell-phone provider is close to over and I’m waiting patiently for the Motorola ROKR to come along. I’ll definitely look into it when it comes out. But if the phone is crippled so that I have to pay the phone company for music on my phone, forget it.
It’s bad enough that my cell provider (Sprint) charges $15 per month for unlimited access to send and receive pics, text and to download ringtones for $2. Now imagine how much it would cost to download a 4 min song. And at the end of this I can only listen to it on a stupid headphone.
I love my iPod and listen to mostly in my car or on my home stereo. I don’t wanna listen to my cell phone at home or in my car.
Enough with the Swiss army knife cellphone, video phone, picture phone, music phone idea. Give me music player that playes music and a cell phone that makes a clear static free call……
Not until battery life is addressed.
I have never had a cell phone that lasted a whole being on and just recieving 2 or 3 calls, now how long will it last listening to music all the time.
I have actually gone back to land lines cause the TelCom were screwing me so bad, my phone bill was never what I thought i should, so many hidden fees and charges, they are hoping you wont notice the extra the song purchases are costing you.
“lasted a whole DAY”
The big surprise is that iPods will sell even more when cell phones try to become mp3 players.
There are a lot of reasons:
carriers too expensive for downloads
not enough memory
interface is lame
battery
not good for podcasting files which are about 15-20mb on average
It will be even less popular to use your cell phone as an mp3 player as it is to use camera phones as your camera today. What surprises me is how much hype there is about this iPod killer when all it will do is drive up sales of stand alone mp3 players
I’d much rather have an iPod that is also a phone than a phone that is also a music player.
The carrier’s solution will fail after people see their first month’s bill after dl a bunch of songs.
And you cannot access the music on your CD’s
It seems that such a device will show up here in Europe first as they tend to be ahead of the US in such areas.
I would much rather have a separate cell phone, camera, and iPod that work well at what they were designed for than a device that wants to do everything. (Think Microsoft) It seems that battery life would/will be a major factor in this all in one device.
Oh yeah what will this new device be called…besides expensive?
Won’t be successful…
1) Battery is needed for calls not music
2) Cell phone execs are all idiots
The cell phone companies smell money.
They think they can screw people with music as they have with ring tones. Well people are stupid to pay 3 bucks for a ring tone so perhaps that it will work.
Those that don’t already have hard-drive MP3 players could be enticed to enter into these deals. The serious music addict will probably shy away from it because it can carry their own songs.
My bet is that there will be a market for phone / mp3 players that hold a gb of songs and can replace flash players. I can’t see phones increasing in size to hold a HD quite yet.
Naysayers,
You take an iPod-sized case and the iPod mini components fit in it with more than enough room for the mobile phone electronics along with a 15 hour battery and a 6GB drive. The iPod OS can easily handle contacts and dialing. It works. I know. It’s in Apple’s lab already. You actually think it won’t work well or that Jobs hasn’t thought very far ahead in this game? Trust me, he’s 20 moves ahead of everyone else. Watch and learn.
And there’s nothing to keep a music player from becoming a cell phone or wifi phone or wimax phone.
If the cellular companies don’t make sure that their core competency of making phone calls doesn’t get better (can we have no more dropped calls please?), and the phone makers don’t make sure that their UI gets simpler and easier, then there’s a huge opening for a tech company like Apple to move in, in the same way that Apple moved into music players.
One point you’re all kinda missing, though:
Regarding the prices cell phone companies want to charge for music, it’s not about whether YOU OR I would pay $2 for a song DL’ed over a phone. It’s about the millions of stupid teenagers on this planet who would most definitely pay that much.
Case in point:
Here in Europe, ringtones are all the rage. Kids are paying up to €4,00 Euros for a “Realtone” (read: lo-fi MP3), and business is BOOMING. This is why the record companies and the cell phone companies are not happy about iTunes for phones: They’re afraid that people will start to recognize that they’re being ripped off!
The cell phone industry makes it’s money from teenagers, NOT business users, THAT’s why they’re banking on their own mobile music services.
The phone companies want $2-$3 per song and you cant downlload all the MP3 you own nor rip your CDs – the iPod has nothing to be worried about.
Ringtones are multibillion € business. Apple has to enter that market ie. Apple iPhone with iTunes and iTMS.
End of discussion.
What I want is a phone (or an iPod) that will stream Digital music files on demand from my computer at home, no matter where I am – so the files stay centralized, and I’m not stuck carrying around yet another hard drive. A few megs of RAM as a buffer (so when I go into a tunnel, my music doesn’t get interrupted), and a flat monthly fee for this service.
For that, I am willing to wait…
I want a tricorder built in too.
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And I still think if one of the phone companies made a deal with Star Trek and came out with a phone that looked like the Communicators they would sell a boatload. They could even have them mimic the function and made the de-de-de-de sound when you open them and have them be able to function in a speaker mode setting as well.
*make the de-de-de-de sound
What is “probably” (MW) needed is ear buds with a microphone added and a Bluetooth iPod that can pause music, and interface with a cell phone.
Here’s an early contender – headphone jack, bluetooth, 6 GB hard drive….
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000683041511/