the real "ipod killer" the mobile?

[unknownsoldier]

With motorolla releasing itunes for their phones, and most new phones having memory stick capability, flash based mp3 players are quickly becoming redundant. Why would you want a 128 mp3 player when you have your phone, right here!

It got me thinking, in a couple of years time, a mobile manufacturer is going to stick a 10gig hardrive in one of their phones.

Could this be the ipod killer we have all been waiting for? your phone?

Do you think that people will warm to the idea of having gigs of music on their mobile phone? whats your opinion!

[Xavier]

the first time i heard about the motorolla and the itunes together, i thought motorolla was offering like free music ringtones to ur motorolla phones, and that iTunes would compress and shorten the length and make it the right sound format and everything to put the songs on ur computer on to ur phones as a rintone, and i got all excited lol. but nope thats not what there doin :(

and no this wont be a iPod killer. if it somehow did, then Apple probabl would start makin cell phones liek that and call it iPhone !!!

[albitalia04]

CELL-TUNES WILL DEFF BE THE KILLER. I HATE CARRING A CELL AND MY IRIVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Enigma]

I hate combo devices: camera phones, camera mp3 players, video player/mp3 players, I'd rather have seperate products, because they are designed specifically for 1 thing. Engineers don't spend most of their time integrating 2 or 3 electronics into one device and spend more time improving and perfecting on one. plus battery life is going to be worse in a device that has 2 or 3 functions as opposed to one.

[davedey]

yeah a combo device wont be the end on the ipod, because it does one thing a does it amaizingly. never will a combo device take over and 1 solid device, i know its hard to carry around more then 1 device, but when you do your gettign superior quality to carrign around a cell phone mp3 camera that records video and audio, and makes your moring cup of coffee, cus that coffee will taste liek ####

[Moose Hunter]

Originally posted by unknownsoldier
With motorolla releasing itunes for their phones, and most new phones having memory stick capability, flash based mp3 players are quickly becoming redundant. Why would you want a 128 mp3 player when you have your phone, right here!

It got me thinking, in a couple of years time, a mobile manufacturer is going to stick a 10gig hardrive in one of their phones.

Could this be the ipod killer we have all been waiting for? your phone?

Do you think that people will warm to the idea of having gigs of music on their mobile phone? whats your opinion!

I never thought of it that way.

With Apple putting music on phones, and storage getting bigger in smaller sizes, people won't need to buy a phone and an MP3 player when they can squeeze it into one.

Apple may have just swallowed the iPod suicide pill...

Although if this is true, it could leave open the possibility of an Apple brand Cellular phone.

[unknownsoldier]

Originally posted by Moose Hunter

Apple may have just swallowed the iPod suicide pill...

Although if this is true, it could leave open the possibility of an Apple brand Cellular phone.

Well.. if they make itunes more profitable and do the whole 'teaming up' thing, they can still make money, and while the branding rights to an ipod phone wouild be up for sale i doubt apple would actually make a phone. if they arn't going to make pdas then they won't make a fully fledged phone

[BriGuy20]

I don't think the iPod is endangered (at least in the near future) competing with cellphones.

First, cellphones do not (as of now) have mechanisms to store 4GB or so of music like the mini. I think that 4-8 GB is the sweet spot for the current market, at least until video catches on (if it ever does). I think a lot of engineering would be needed to stuff a hard drive into a cell phone considering it has the color screen and keypad now (I'm guessing that uses more internal space than an iPod mini). I have heard they are planning to add hard drives to cell phones, but it may take a while to implement.

Second, the buying process for a cellphone is considerably more complex than an iPod. You have to sign all sorts of agreements for the most part (or use more expensive pre-pay plans), lock yourself in for 2 years to a carrier, that sort of thing. I don't think cellphones can compete on a volume basis with something like an iPod, especially considering how fragmented the market is.

Third, you can't just plug in your favorite headphones onto your cellphone. Right now, most cellphones have the single earpiece/boom mic combo, which isn't ideal for music. Were cellphones to become a more popular means of listening to music, i'm sure we'd see 2-ear headphones.

I DO think that phones with memory cards might make memory stick players (i.e. 512MB or less) redundant in the next few years.

But I don't think the cellphone will kill the music player in the next 5 years or so.

[Moose Hunter]

Originally posted by unknownsoldier
Well.. if they make itunes more profitable and do the whole 'teaming up' thing, they can still make money, and while the branding rights to an ipod phone wouild be up for sale i doubt apple would actually make a phone. if they arn't going to make pdas then they won't make a fully fledged phone

PDAs are soon going to be replaced by SmartPhones. Who needs 2 when you can have one.

[SlowBye]

Could you imagine scrolling through this much music with the 12 buttons of a phone. Imagine having the ipod screen squished past a mini. Now can you imagine controlling a cell phone with hd player-like controls. Just think about it. Unless 2 companies teamed up, some ideas would probably be stolen and big conflict. Plus, some people just need music, they don't need a cell phone. Just my fifth of a dime.