Analyst: 50 percent of phones will play music by 2011
Music players are losing out in popularity to phones that pull double-duty, according to a market research report released Monday.
More than 500 million music phones were shipped worldwide in 2007, which puts that category of device 300 million units ahead of regular old portable music players, according to the report released Monday by MultiMedia Intelligence. The company is forecasting that by 2011, of the 941 million handsets that will ship worldwide, more than half will be music phones. (The report defines a music phone as a handset that plays music files, and has a memory card slot.)
The Walkman-branded W980 phone from Sony Ericsson is a phone but looks like a music player. Phones that play music are quickly outpacing standalone portable music players.
(Credit: Sony Ericsson)As the developed world begins to be saturated with cell phones, handset manufacturers and wireless operators are forced to look elsewhere to keep their profits up. For leading handset maker Nokia, its secret to staying on top of the competition is its growing business in emerging markets, like China, India, the Middle East, and Africa, according to my CNET News.com colleague Maggie Reardon.
The operators of wireless networks also need ways to increase revenue. So, though not everyone has a need for a data plan if they don't want e-mail on their phone, music is something almost everyone can relate to. Right now the most promising driver of profits on cell phones is music-playing capability.
"Music has been the first 'killer app' for the operators to drive the consumption of premium content on the handset," said Frank Dickson, chief research officer for MultiMedia Intelligence. To that end, MMI predicts the mobile music market will be worth $6 billion by the end of this year. "With such significant revenue and customer demand at stake, the operators' and handset providers' concerted efforts (will) use music as a central part of their handset strategies," the report says.
Update 1:55 p.m. PDT: As several commenters have pointed out below, buying a music phone doesn't necessarily mean it's used for playing music. (Case in point: my own Verizon enV has a 2GB microSD slot, and I've never transferred MP3 files to it. But that's mostly because my iPod earbuds don't work with the enV and I refuse to buy a separate set.) Music-playing ability was formerly a feature reserved for high-end phones, but as the technology gets cheaper, that means that those features will start to filter down to more inexpensive phones, which have always been the majority of the market.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
standalone players is because cell phone makers force people to
buy cell phones with music players. Very few people actually
use the players that come with their phones, and most would
prefer if the music player wasn't on there. Unfortunately the
phones that don't come with music players suck, so if you want
a descent phone you have to buy one with a music player. If I
had a few million in venture funding I would design a phone
that went back to the basics and had a lightweight, slim design,
and maybe a camera as an optional version.
and said about 3/4 of all iphone users listen to music on their
iphones. I know i listen to mine all the time.
But you made a great point about how crappy the interfaces are
on most phones with built in music players. They suck....really
bad. Of all the phones ive had in the last 3 years (a sony s710a,
a sony walkman w600, and a motorolla slvr w/ itunes), iPhone
has been the only phone that i've used to listen music with as if
it were a standalone ipod.
Sure I played around with the others. I added a few songs
(which proved to be cumbersome, especially with itunes!), which
would be listened to on the very rare occasion, and that was
that, never really taking it seriously and defiantly not meant for
day to day listening. iPhone changed all that for me, and now, i
leave my ipod at home all the time...its almost obsolete.
Music can be a powerful application for a phone when the UI is
done right. Unfortunatly, that isn't always the case.
When I was looking to upgrade my old ancient dinosaur of a phone this year, I was looking for something with email and high-speed Internet capability. A physical keypad would be a bonus. I wasn't even thinking of listening to music on a cell phone. I had an iRiver MP3 player but I never used it. I decided on the Samsung BlackJack II because it had 3G capability, a nice compact form factor, a physical keypad and a cool design. It was also just $99, much cheaper than the iPhone, which doesn't have 3G. (The BlackJack II doesn't have Wi-Fi capability but with 3G Internet, I don't miss the Wi-Fi at all.)
When I read through the quick start booklet, I found out about the XM Radio and the MP3 features. XM Radio turned out to be a novelty only. I hardly use it, but I ended up using the MP3 feature a lot. I use the phone to listen to music at work every day with my Motorola S9 earphones. Both devices are Bluetooth 2.0 capable, which means that they work over a 30-feet distance. I've tested this out many times. I can walk around half the floor with the earphones on and leave the phone at the desk and the music still plays. (The signal doesn't go around walls, however.)
The bottom line is that back in December, I would have said that an MP3 player in a cell phone is just useless nonsense. However, I've found that I use my cell phone to play music everyday. Funny, because I think I went a year without even touching my old iRiver MP3 player. (When I finally fished it out of my bag, I discovered that the AA battery had leaked and damaged the unit. Oh well.)
in features. I think the trend should focus on letting each user
customize the phone/mp3 player's functions to suit the user.
This seems to be Apple's trend with their upcoming 3rd. party
software offerings. Perhaps other hardware manufacturer's will
take note.
Although it is nice to think that combining all my hand held
gadgets into one device will be convenient, I don't think I'll ever
use all the features the manufacturer's feel is necessary to woo
me over as a customer.
Actually it's just the opposite. The SDK is very restrictive and apple, not the user, has control over what apps they can install. This is why jailbreak has been so popular.
1. I want a great, tiny MP3 player. It should be the size of a stick of gum, should have a tiny screen, and a few buttons. It should have great sound and have headphones with a built-in microphone. It should have bluetooth and talk to...
2. My cell phone, a web-enabled smart phone with a big screen, like an iPhone or a Centro.
I want to be able to use my cell phone to wirelessly control my MP3 player. I want to be able to use it to download music and sync it via bluetooth. When the phone rings, I want the cell phone to pause the music on my MP3 player, and let me answer by pressing one of those buttons on the MP3 player. I want the two gadgets to feel like one seamless gadget. But I don't want to have to dig my phone out of my pocket to answer a call, or just see the title of a song. And I don't want to have to take my headphones out of my ears to answer a call either.
anybody want to carry two different things if the functionality for
both is already built-in to one device. also, an mp3 player the size
of a stick of gum is impossible if you want to have a battery,
storage, and bluetooth support. the bluetooth part alone would
take up half a stick of gum at least.
I like the BlackJack II because it has 3G Internet capability and a physical keypad. I tried out the virtual keypad on the iPhone in the store and I really don't like it. (Not to say that it doesn't work for other people.)
A disclaimer about the S9: When you play music on the cell phone, the S9 plays the audio in full stereo. When you are using the voice feature, the audio only plays on the left side. That's because the right side contains the microphone. It is built into the earpiece so it doesn't work as well as a traditional Bluetooth headset in crowded and noisy places. You have to talk a little louder for someone to hear your voice when using the S9. It also helps to direct your voice slightly to the right. Yeah, it's slightly strange. Moreover, the S9 fits behind your head so other people may not be able to tell that you are wearing earphones at all. They may think that you are talking to yourself like a crazy person. But I usually hold the phone in my hand so they can figure out that I'm using some kind of wireless headset, even if they can't see it.
However, people do not purchase these phones for their music playing capability.
I have a Windows Mobile HTC TyTN and my wife has a Nokia N95. Both of these devices are superb multimedia devices, but this was not a decision factor when making the purchase. However, My 14 year old son has a Samsung 830 with a 2GB micro SD card. He does use it to play music, but even he insists that if I bought him a dedicated media player, he would rather use that than sacrifice his phone's battery life.
- I'd rather have...
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by Seaspray0
March 24, 2008 3:43 PM PDT
- A digital camera that plays mp3s and works as a phone. The deluxe model comes with SatNav and TV/fm tuner.
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Reply to this comment
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(16 Comments)Who knows. It could happen. In the 1960's they got a computer to fit inside a single room.