Mobiles not set to take over Music Players
So says the findings of JupiterResearch (a division of Jupitermedia Corporation). The company has just released a report that states mobile phones will not be replacing portable media players "in the immediate future, despite industry initiatives". The report “Music Mobile Phones – Will They Replace Portable Media Players?” concludes that because mobiles are "hampered by a trade-off between size, battery life and …power demands" their hope for a musical future is ultimately doomed – for the time being at least.
We’re not so sure about this, but we’re basing that on gut instinct rather than a European survey (like JupiterResearch). It’s not clear how many people they quizzed, but we do know that 50% of them said that size was the most important factor when choosing their next mobile phone. Add to this the fact that mobiles are already choc-full of multimedia services such as video playback, megapixel cameras and games, and the result is that battery life cannot keep up with the demands. The upshot of all this is that mobile operators are wasting their time pursuing a mobile music strategy. Barriers such as music licences, positioning of tru music ringtones, and limited storage capacity on handsets, further hampers manufacturers. Sounds like a fairly disheartening report, but we’re not ready to believe it just yet. The increase of music players on mobiles seems like the next logical step to us. But maybe we’re just hopeless optimists. Grab the full report here.
