“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.
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Motorola CEO Zander: Apple iTunes phone due ‘in the next few months’ – April 20, 2005