WSJ: Music phones no iPod killer
May 23 2005 - 12:40 AM ET | In The News
Today's
Wall Street Journal argues that
music oriented mobile phones may not be "iPod killers" like
Bill Gates and others are saying. Quoting the article:
bq. IPods are superb examples of design -- navigating between thousands of songs is only easy because Apple engineers made it so. Designwise, many cellphones are a lot like icebergs: one function obvious, the rest submerged and navigable only by the brave. It's a big leap of faith to think handset makers can approach the iPod's ease of use with a jack-of-all-trades device. Apple's competitors haven't managed it with their standalone devices, and they've had years to try.
Many analysts have called 2005, "Year of the music phone." Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG, and others have announced music centered devices recently. Most have not begun shipping yet, but Q4 will see a lot of competition of music phones.
This summer Motorola should take the wraps off the first iTunes phone as part of its partnership with Apple.
