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by Michael Singer
ZDNet News
Sep 7, 2005
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As Apple Computer and Motorola unveiled
an iTunes phone Wednesday, analysts were debating whether the time was
right for more mobile phone-digital music player hybrids.
Mobile-phone customers are already consuming music on their handsets.
Nokia's N91, Samsung's SGH i300 and Sony's Walkman W800 are examples
of handsets that play digital music files.
A phone may be limited to storing about 1,000 songs now--as much as
4 gigabytes of music storage is available in the N91 handset--but that's
expected to grow dramatically as larger flash memory becomes available
and as phones begin incorporating high-capacity micro-hard drives, which
currently support 6GB of storage.
Current habits regarding the storage of digital music suggest that the
marriage of mobile phones and digital music players makes sense, according
to a study by Solutions Research Group.
Even though some standalone players can hold as many as 15,000 songs,
the average user of a high-capacity digital music device stores only
375 songs, the study found. One out of every four players holds between
100 and 499 songs, while 25 percent have 500 songs stored on them. Half
of those surveyed said their digital music player holds fewer than 100
songs. That's a good sign for the phone unveiled by Motorola and Apple,
which should store about 100 songs.
Owners of Apple's iPods have significantly larger libraries--504 songs
on average--compared with owners of other digital music players, with
246 songs, the study said.
The Solutions Research Group study was based on 1,062 random interviews
the group conducted in the United States via telephone in May and June.
In a recent Forrester survey, 78 percent of online consumers age 18
and older said they had no interest in using their cell phone to play
back audio tracks. Only 13 percent of online consumers ages 12 to 17
said they were interested in such a feature.
Despite the popularity of the iPod, the public still may need some coaxing
in downloading songs. Only 22 percent of those who own digital music
players bought a song online at some point in the past, suggesting that
a majority of the music on the devices comes from owners' CDs and from
peer-to-peer, file-sharing sources, Solutions Research Group found.
But that may change if Apple and Motorola launch a media blitz to convince
the public that there is an advantage to owning a phone that merges
iPod technology.
"Apple could offer a special on downloading songs from iTunes with
the purchase of a cell phone and the plan," said Tim Deal, an analyst
at Technology Business Research. "Clearly, we are talking about
a computer-based solution using iTunes and not a download service via
the carrier. Apple wants to make sure that the business model works
first, before it develops its wireless world."
And teaming with Cingular may provide the market sweet spot Apple and
Motorola are looking for. According to Solutions Research Group, 14
percent of Cingular's customers have a digital music player. A larger
proportion, 17 percent of those surveyed, report that they want to buy
one within 12 months, the report said.
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