KEY POINTS:
What is it?
Potentially the best music phone yet. The two-in-one device took a leap forward last year, thanks in part to good design from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Sanyo. But the efforts of those phone-makers could well be unravelled if reports that Apple is working on its own iPhone are true. The maker of the iPod has had a go at a music phone before - the poorly received ROKR, which was made with Motorola and enabled the phone to sync with iTunes. The iPhone will need a new approach.
What makes it tick?
Music phones now contain everything needed to place calls over the mobile network, surf the web from the phone and take digital pictures and video clips. They also mimic the functions of music players such as the iPod and Creative's Zen player. They have internal memory that can store songs or expansion slots that "flash" memory cards can be plugged into. They also have the software that plays the music and displays play-lists.
What makes them cool?
Owning a music phone means not having to carry a mobile phone and a music player. It makes sense to have a two-in-one device that serves both purposes. But few phones have been able to perform both functions well. Battery life is an issue, as mobiles used for music playback run out of juice for calling too quickly. Internal storage capacity has been low, though that is now changing as memory becomes cheaper and more compact. Music download services from Vodafone and Telecom also now enable songs to be downloaded straight to a mobile phone, priced from $1.99 a track.
Music phones are not really that pricey because ...
When you consider what you'd pay for a high-end phone ($500 to $1000) and an iPod ($300 to $600), these dual-use phones make sense. And while we wait for the iPhone, other options for converged phone and music players are already available. Several Vodafone handsets function as high-capacity music devices. Among them is the Nokia N91, which holds up to 4 gigabytes of music and costs $999.
