Will mobile phones kill portable music players?
October 3, 2006 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Cell phone, Motorola, Multimedia
Several years ago, mobile phones killed the personal pager. Today, with an increasing number of phones offering MP3 playback features, huge storage capacities and the ability to connect a standard 3.5mm audio earpiece, these phones are slowly being positioned to go head to head with dedicated music players
Will mobile phones replace these dedicated music players like the iPod? My short answer? No. Not yet. Here’s why:
Dedicated music players have far better battery life; mobile phones are subject to around eight to twelve hours of standy time. If you dedicate some battery to your music, you’ll be sacrificing a lot of standby time which could make you end up running out of juice before your day ends.
Incoming calls disrupt the listening experience. This holds true for all phones with built in music players. I’d rather have a seperate device for listening to music and another one for sending SMS. Having both in one gadget could lead to accidental song terminations because of the combined user interface. Speaking of UI …
Digital music causes user interface lag. Very evident with the ROKR. It’s just too annoying.
Valid points, but I believe the mobile phone is rapidly becoming good enough, and the problems you mentioned are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Want to place a bet? Let’s wait 1-2 years and see what you think about the situation
Convergence isn’t always a good thing. But, I think it’s only a matter of time when mobile phones will beat music players like they did pagers in the past. That is, if music players in the future will not have more new things to offer, like isn’t there a new music player that can connect to the net? Pero pano kung music players can now make calls and send messages? Sino nanalo? joke lng…hehe…
Ciao
I have a Nokia N91, sounds much better then any music player my friends have. I did not find batteries to be an issue. I listen music and radio from the internet during driving, watch videos and movies, take pictures and videos.
You can set your phone in offline mode and won’t bother you wehn you listen music!
The convergence is already here, is a matter of mobile education.
Alessandro
I’ve owned Treo’s for years, and for a long time I’ve had a 1 GB SD card, and I could easily upgrade to a larger one if I want. With PocketTunes, the mp3 experience is quite nice, with a great interface, and plenty of options. I still own a 4 GB Ipod Nano though. Why? The nano is perfect for the gym – no other reason. I don’t have to worry about listening to too much music and killing my Treo battery either – also a plus.