iPod Killers?
"The iPod is great, but no one has a stranglehold. There's nothing that keeps the mobile phone from moving into that area." - Frank Nuovo, Nokia Chief Designer -
Several days before Nokia launched the 1st 3 models in its new 3GSM UMTS (WCDMA) Nseries handset range which included the Nokia N91 iPod alternative BusinessWeek published an international cover story with the above title which includes with this paragraph:
With innovative services and snazzier phones, the telecom players figure they can swipe a chunk of the digital music market that Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL ) cracked open with its iconic iPod. That sets the stage for a battle between two industries. On one side are Apple and the other tech players concentrated in Silicon Valley that see the computer as central to the future of music. On the other are telecom companies, from Finland to South Korea to the U.S., that think the mobile phone can become the center of this emerging world.
The article concludes with this paragraph:
Who would have thought the cell phone would evolve from a brick-sized talking device to a pocket-sized jukebox? In early April, 1973, to much fanfare, a Motorola researcher made the first reported call using a handheld wireless phone. Now, Jason Smikle and his buddies not only can talk on one, they can dance to stereo-quality tunes booming from the little gadgets. Music on phones is coming of age. Watch out, Apple.
I highly recommend reading the complete article and it is available at the two links included below. I've included a few more excerpts relating to Nokia:
>> iPod Killers?
New rivals take aim at the champ
Roger O. Crockett
BusinessWeek
April 25, 2005
businessweek.com
msnbc.msn.com
<Big Snip> ... The telecom approach has several strengths Apple can't match. For starters, a quarter of the world's population already has a mobile phone. That's 1.4 billion people, compared with 10 million iPods sold to date. Most of those cell-phone toters pay a monthly phone bill, making it a snap to add a music charge. Perhaps most important, wireless technology could provide access anytime, anywhere to millions of songs. ... <snip> ... To Apple, this threat may look more than a little overblown. After all, the company's elegant iPod and easy-to-use iTunes have been such breakthroughs that they sparked a musical revolution. The carefully crafted combo gives consumers a no-hassle way to buy tunes on the Net and carry every single song they own with them. Already, Apple has faced a fierce onslaught from the likes of Dell, Sony, and Microsoft, and turned it back with little more than a twist and shout. On Apr. 13, Apple is expected to have announced more than 5 million iPod sales in the latest quarter, building on its market lead ... <snip> ... Apple is facing what looks like the most serious threat so far to its digital music dominance. Of its trio of devices, the iPod may be the least affected. Its hard drive of as much as 60 gigabytes, or 15,000 songs, makes it a music aficionado's dream, and no phone can match it. The iPod mini and Shuffle are more vulnerable, since their storage is well within reach of a phone's capabilities. Some experts are convinced mobile phones will become the primary devices for carrying around tunes. "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," says Scott Horn, a senior director at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which sells software for phones and music players ...
<Snip> ... Nokia, in partnership with Microsoft and Loudeye Corp, provides operators with technology to send customers two copies of a track. One goes to the phone and can't be moved, and the other, a copy-protected version, goes to the PC. By yearend, Nokia will do away with this clunky workaround so a customer can buy copy-protected downloads over the air and move them freely. Operator O2 Germany, a unit of Britain's O2 PLC, will use the Nokia solution in its wireless music offering, launching this summer, and Vodafone may adopt it. "Consumers are in charge here," says Vodafone's Ferguson. "They want the freedom to do what they want with songs." ... <Snip> <<
Lots more in this article. I recommend reading it in its entirety. It will be interesting to see how Nokia fares with the N91 and how Apple is impacted by the N91 and other competitors coming on line from Motorola, Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson.
- Eric - |
