At Cellphone Show, the Talk Is About Music

The hot topic among mobile phone executives gathered in San Francisco for a cellphone trade show is the push to transform handsets into portable music players, reports The New York Times.

"Clint Wheelock, an analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm, said the wireless carriers were hoping to follow the huge success of the Apple iPod music player. Evolving technology has made it less expensive to build music capability into a phone than in the past. Some analysts say the cost of adding music-organizing software and more memory will be as little as $30 a phone.

Equally important to the music phone's success is having millions of consumers accustomed to downloading and listening to digital music. Indeed, some phone companies believe a music phone can become a strong competitor to a stand-alone music player like the iPod.

Still, there are obstacles. Consumers have not always embraced new features, particularly when they absorb battery life and could detract from the phone's main use: making calls.

The handset makers also are not likely to add so much memory that the phones will be able to hold the vast music libraries that iPods can hold."

emily | 8:29 AM | Music Phones |
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