“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/
B-Sabre
Looks pretty neat, but with just 3-4 hours of talk time, I can’t imagine that wou’ll be rocking out for too long without charging the thing again.
Correction: 4 GB drive…
This from the Nokia page:
“The Nokia N91 serves up to 12.5 hours of great sound via the included stereo headset with remote control. Enjoying your music collection has never been easier, as the Nokia N91 supports a wide range of digital music formats including MP3, M4A, AAC and WMA.”
How music time = talk time = standby is a good question.
After seeing the new Nokia N91 Steve Jobs just flipped out….totally…screaming:
“We had the first, we had the first one with Motorola. Why didn´t they show it a month ago?”
Now Apple is late to the party…or not ever showing up…?
Meanwhile Steve is locked in his room throwing Pixar dolls around…”I´ll show them who is incredible!!!”, screams Steve.
Apple and Motorola only needs one carrier. When one carrier start offering iTune compatible phone, it is time to buy their stock and watch them become number one carrier (chances are major carriers will get a wake up call when their customer base swich in mass to a no name start-up carrier).
s: You are dreaming.
The computer (or some home unit) will _have_ to stay the center of music for 3 reasons:
1, no matter how big these devices get, a heft comptur HD is the only thing large enough to really hold a big music collection
2, I, and I think most people, still like to listen to music at home. I suppose you could get a dock and rest the phone in it to play music at home, but see # 3
3, For organizing music, no portable device is sufficient (including the iPod). You really need a computer interface to be able to effectively organize thousands of songs
Now I’d be more than happy to ditch my iPod someday if I get a phone with 20-30GB of storage, so I don’t have to carry 2 things around with me. However, I’ll still want to use my computer as my “base station” for music, dock the phone to it, and just use that for portable uses.
do the major labels think anyone is going to buy songs for over $2 a pop? They’re such freakin’ morons – $0.99 is the price point people are willing to legally download. If they want to increase the prices at iTMS and the lot to do it, they should be prepared for a slowed rate of increase of legal downloads and a similar increase in piracy.
MDN wrote…”We want either an iPod that can place / receive phone calls or a mobile phone that has 10+GB and a headphone jack”
Umm, speak for yourself. Don’t say “we” cause I have NO desire for the Swiss army kife approach.
my boyfriend bought this all in one aptex dvcam/stillcam/webcam/mp3player/voice recorded. not only is it not mac compatible, it also fried every 512 memory card ever put into it. the webcam is crappy, doesn’t work well in low light. the still cam has white balance but the dvcam doesn’t. he’s never been able to get it to play a single mp3 or get the voice recorder to work. in other words, he paid for shite!!!! i like my ipod being my for my music and my cell for my phone call.
IMO, I just want a phone that actually works as a phone. The cell phone companies should be doing everything they can to improve the quality of their wireless networks (instead of spending billions buying other companies like AT&T and fighting over MCI).
I THINK I want the Motorola iTunes phone, but it has more to do with the fact that I EXPECT it will be a nice looking phone.
If I do buy a phone with music playing capabilities, I definitely want it to be compatible with the music I already own. I don’t see any advantage to downloading songs directly to my phone (of course, I’m older and wouldn’t consider using a phone for email or browsing the net either – the screen is just too small).
Anything that complicates the working of the phone is useless to me and that’s one of the reasons why I’m a Mac user. Apple generally tries to keep things simple.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
I’m sure the human race will survive without their precious muzak. Don’t get me wrong, I love music, but i don’t need it absolutley everywhere I go. There is a time and aplace for everything. For me, music sounds best thumping through a home stereo unit attached to the computer. If I walk around all day listening to ‘Hey Piddy Diddy or whatever his name is, I’m not gonna want to listen to him properly when I get home.
Is it even possible to listen to “Piddy Diddy” properly in the first place?
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“We want one device, please.”
hate attittude like this. You dont speak for me. Im 16 and like the shuffle. Its care free and light as a matchbook, UNLIKE YOUR DREAMED OF PDIDDY PHONE LOL!
I love the 40 yr old geeks who think they know what kids want. You dont speak for me old man, or anyone my age LOSER
tungi beha