Music phones get more in tune with consumers

Not everyone is melding their music with their cell phones, but a growing number of consumers are, with more choices than ever for finding a music phone that strikes the right note.

LG’s Chocolate music phone, a popular model, is now in its third version. Motorola’s ROKR line, Samsung’s Juke and Nokia’s 5310 Xpress Music speak volumes with their names. And, the Sony Walkman, a portable tape player, then CD player and household staple for a previous generation, continues to live on in Sony Ericsson’s Walkman line of mobiles.

One of the premier devices that is both a music player and cell phone is the iPhone, which Apple “considers the best iPod that they’ve ever made,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for The NPD Group market research firm.

While cell phone sales in general declined 13 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared to the same time last year, 65 percent of phones purchased were “music-enabled” in the second quarter of 2008, in contrast to 45 percent in the second quarter of 2007, The NPD Group said in a recent report.

“We’ve certainly seen music-capable phones on the rise, aided by features like dedicated playback control buttons, removable memory, or more integrated memory in order to store more music,” said Rubin.

Prices on such phones vary. Some, such as Samsung’s Juke, carried by Verizon Wireless, are being offered free with a two-year contract.

LG’s Chocolate 3, also at Verizon Wireless, is $129.99. The ROKR E8 is $199.99 at T-Mobile, and Nokia’s 5310 Music Xpress goes for $49.99, also at T-Mobile. The iPhone, carried exclusively by AT&T, is $199 for an 8-gigabyte model, and $299 for a 16-GB version. Both iPhone versions come with more storage than standard music cell phones, which generally come with between 1 and 4 gigabytes of storage.

For some consumers, the issue is one of convenience and convergence, melding two devices into one. With digital music players in more than half of households in the United States now, “the MP3 player market is a mature one,” said Rubin.

“We’ve really seen quite a bit of a slowdown, and more of the market is heading to less-expensive devices, those under $100 and very often with very small screens or no screens at all that consumers are using to bring to the gym, and not care if it gets knocked around so much.”

Apple, which offers a variety of iPods, may unveil a revamped lineup on Tuesday.

For some music aficionados, having a stand-alone music player is important for carrying their collection of hundreds or thousands of songs with them. The current largest-capacity iPod, for example, has 160 gigabytes.

Verizon Wireless LG's Chocolate 3 music phone, carried by Verizon Wireless, can support up to an 8-gigabyte microSD card for storage.

That amount of storage can hold up to 40,000 songs, according to Apple. The current maximum storage capacity for any cell phone right now, including the iPhone, is 16 gigabytes, said Avi Greengart, Current Analysis research director for mobile devices.

“There is no standard amount of storage, but there are several phones on the market that come with 2 gigabytes of storage in the box,” and can be expanded with add-on microSD cards, he said.

“I don’t see the market for dedicated music devices going away,” Greengart said. “In most cases, cell phones that can play music are a supplement, not a supplant.”

They definitely are a good option “for people who don’t have large music collections, or for people who want to consolidate down to a single device,” he said.

Nokia’s music push
Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone maker, is aggressively pushing music phones and its online Nokia Music Store, which now serves 10 countries, including Australia, France, German, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

The company’s new “Comes With Music” service, due to launch in October in the United Kingdom, gives owners of certain Nokia phones free, unlimited music downloads for a year.

After the year is up, it will be up to users to decide whether to continue the service on a subscription basis.

A Nokia spokeswoman said it's not known when the music service will be available in the United States.

In the United States, Nokia has a smaller market presence than companies like Motorola, Samsung and LG, and bigger competition from Apple with its highly successful online iTunes Store for music downloads.

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