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Cell Phones to Dethrone iPod in Digital Music Industry?

6:00 am on August 7, 2006 | Category: Business, Cell Phones, Mobile Devices, Multimedia

Over the past few years, the popularity of music phones has skyrocketed throughout North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. Companies like Sony Ericsson are continually launching newer and more advanced music-enabled handset with higher storage capacities than ever before.

This has raised questions from within the industry about whether the popularity of music phones will eclipse that of the Apple iPod, and other standalone digital music players.

So far, the market for music players isnâ€™t showing any signs of weakness, with the devices still selling like hotcakes throughout the developed world. In Japan, however, which is often seen as a technological trendsetter, there are now more music downloads taking place over mobile networks that on computers. This figure is especially important because the ability to download songs remotely is one of the main selling points of music phones.

According to market researcher, Ovum, 27% of mobile phones sold globally this year will have some musical capability, and this number is expected to reach 69% in 2010.

As the availability of music phones, and their storage capacities, increase over time, it seems almost inevitable that they will chip away at the market for low to mid range dedicated music players, including the iPod.

If Apple hopes to maintain its supremacy in this competitive and fast moving industry, it will need to get to work quickly on its own wireless iPod or â€œiPhoneâ€ product.

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