Research: Music Phones Sell More Than iPods
March 26th, 2008 by Todd Haselton 
I was having a conversation with my coworker TJ the other day about consumer electronics. We both agreed that, for the most part, we like to have our phone, a camera, and an MP3 player separate instead of a 3-in-1 device. We agreed this was probably the case because we’re afraid of losing all of our music, photos, and contacts all in one incident, should something happen to our multi-gadget. Today, a market research firm claims that my colleague and I may be in the minority. MultiMedia Intelligence reported that over 500 million music phones were sold in 2007, “outnumbering shipments of personal media players like the iPod by almost 300 million units.” MultiMedia Intelligence projects that by 2011 more than half of all the mobile phones sold will be considered a music phone. Maybe I jumped to conclusions too quickly, though. MultiMedia Intelligence actually labels any phone a “music phone,” if it has both music-codec functionality and a memory slot. So, technically, that means most of the latest smart phones also fall into this category, too. Something tells me all those businesspeople that are issued BlackBerrys for work aren’t listening to the latest Gnarls Barkley album at the gym. That’s what personal media players are for, right?
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March 26th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Although I’m hardly your typical business user (I’m self-employed) I’ve been looking to consolidate all my gadgets into one for the convenience. I find it really inconvenient trying to juggle phone, mp3 player and pda whenever I step out of my home office. As for the fear of losing my all-in-one, that’s what backups are for. And I could just as easily lose three gadgets due to a lost or stolen bag or backpack as I could lose one. Consider this my vote for one gadget. The less wires, the better, I say.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I used to have to carry a work cell phone, a personal cell phone, a small mp3 player, and a pda (with no phone capability, the Palm Zire72) Thanks to my new all in one Pda, the Palm Treo 755p, I now only need to carry one device. It’s my pda, my mp3 player (I use a 2gb memory card) my work cell and my personal phone, (I foward my personal cell number calls to my work phone to carry les stuff). It’s wonderful! And since I always backup daily, (to my computer and automatically online at mozy.com) If I loose the phone (I’ve placed a small label on the back of my phone just in case it lands into the hands of an honest person) I still have my data.
I also sync my email and calendar and contacts with Outlook on my PC as well as online at Yahoo and Plaxo – I want my data to be available from anywhere I am all the time. I wouldnt have it any other way.
I also use my pda as a radio, I listen to to my favorite radio programs through my PDA browser, check out: http://www.tuned.mobi/ I also read the Bible (a free download from http://www.olivetree.com/resources/free/ ) as well as ebooks, free of course, from http://www.free-ebooks.net/ and http://www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm and from http://www.olivetree.com/store/home.php?cat=269&free=y
If you ask me, I’d say keep it all in one place (and don’t forget to backup).