Music phones outsell iPods & MP3 players

Much like how the PS3 brought Blu-ray into millions of homes that would not have a Blu-ray player otherwise, MP3-capable phones have taken off to the point where there are now 300 million more MP3-capable phones than dedicated MP3 players.  As a result, while the iPod may still be the leading MP3 player for playing music, it no longer accounts for over half of MP3 player sales when phones equipped with MP3 players are taken into account. 

According to a MultiMedia Intelligence report in this c|net story, over 500 million music player equipped phones were shipped worldwide in 2007, compared to around just 200 million dedicated music players.  They forecast that by 2011, over half of handsets that will ship worldwide will be music phones and that the mobile music market will reach $6 billion by the end of the year, where they define a music phone as a handset capable of playing music files and includes a memory card slot.  Apparently a music player has been the first major application to help push more premium content sales, not to mention more phones, unlike other phone models just equipped with cameras, e-mail and 3G.

However, just like how only a certain portion of PS3 owners play Blu-ray discs on their consoles, many music phone owners have no intention of ever playing music on their phones.  For example, some consumers simply ended up with a music phone as part of an upgrade offer or just liked the style or other features of the phone.  Music phones also have several drawbacks over dedicated MP3 players:  When the battery runs out, the phone may not be able to make or receive any calls or text messages.  The capacity is usually very limited and some phones will not take memory cards larger than 2GB.  Finally, the majority of phones do not have a standard earphone connection; requiring either a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter or even a proprietary adapter.