Mobile phones face the music

True “music phones” generally allow users to stream music over the Internet, import audio files from their PCs or download them wirelessly from a content provider. Mobile music can then be stored in the device’s memory.

Mobile music is already the second-most-popular mobile data service behind short message service (SMS) in terms of global use and revenue. With mobile phone technology advancing in all aspects, many manufacturers are betting on music fans.

“The shelf life of a mobile phone model is shorter than ever. People want new things, and the mobile industry wants to satisfy the market. Very few handset makers are manufacturing models without music functions. All higher-end handsets are bound to have music,” says Simon Dornan, Head of Consumer PR at Virgin Mobile.

Wanted – good sound and ability to add extras

According to Dornan, consumers want good audio quality and the ability the attach accessories to their devices, such as top-quality headphones and speakers. ”Consumers are paying more attention to the quality of the music experience than they used to. Manufacturers are teaming up with leading audio companies, such as Bang & Olufsen and Harman Kardon, to make the music experience even more satisfying.”

Today, many handsets, especially the lower-priced ones, still come with a proprietary connector that only accepts the manufacturer's headphones. “My cellular comes with a standard 3.5 mm audio jack, which is great because it lets me upgrade the sound quality of the device considerably,” comments a 26-year-old music enthusiast in a web discussion.

”True music fans may be willing to spend as much as 3-times the average price on their music phones if that means better sound quality and connectivity with accessories,” says Jukka Pihlajasalo Head of Area Sales at Sonera/TeliaSonera.

Expandable memory, long battery life

What drives even more music listeners to replace their digital music players with music phones is the increased storage space. Because many models still have a rather limited capacity – music fans ask for ones with a large internal memory, or one that can be expanded with an extra memory card.

“2 Gb is seen as the bare minimum, but music-heavy users are favoring phones with an internal memory of 8 Gb, or even 16 Gb,” Pihlajasalo says, adding that with a memory capacity of 2 Gb, music listeners can save some 500 tunes on the device.

The same goes for battery life. Because listening to music is bound to drain the battery faster than normal; the longer the battery life to start with, the better.

MP3 player versus music phone

Virgin Mobile’s Dornan says that the quality of existing music phones is already approaching that of portable music devices, such as the MP3 player. “There really aren’t any huge steps to make to match the quality of music phones with portable digital audio players. People love the convenience of music phones, but they are also realistic – listening to music from one is never going to be like sitting in an acoustically designed room surrounded by numerous loud speakers.“

”Why carry around two devices when you can combine them. A mobile phone is carried around everywhere and in all circumstances. Music phones are bound to become an even bigger hit – they have already brought along many popular applications, such as direct music downloading from digital music shops,” says Pihlajasalo.