Comments on: Music-enabled cellphone shipments tower over the iPod

By: MG Siegler

MG Siegler — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:57:35 +0000

@jon – as I say in the piece “That conclusion may be somewhat misleading because presumably the purpose of a music-enabled cellphone is still to be a phone first, and some purchasers may not use the music capabilities at all. If you buy an iPod, on the other, you are almost certainly using it to listen to music.”

that said, iPod sales have been at least somewhat stagnant as of late and the natural thought I would argue is still to have one device in your pocket rather than multiple. Certainly the iPhone fulfills that role – and is by far the best of the music-playing cellphones that I’ve seen (even if the report refuses to classify it as such) – but there is a HUGE market out there for such a hybrid device beyond simply those who can afford an iPhone/want to use AT&T or other world carriers.

By: MG Siegler

MG Siegler — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:53:28 +0000

@Nathan – I’m in complete agreement with you that iPhone+iTunes completely blows away anything any other “music” phone offers, that’s why I point out the oddness that the data doesn’t include the iPhone as a “music” phone.

By: jon

jon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:27:01 +0000

This report is ridiculous. Just because a phone is music-enabled, that doesn’t indicate anything about how it is actually being used. Anecdotally, I have never met ANYONE who usees their phone for music. My thought would be that the vast majority of music-enabled phones are not used for music at all. This requires a more detailed research on how people are actually using their phones that just what they bought. Comparing iPod shipments to cellphone shipments is apples and oranges.

By: Nathan Schmidt

Nathan Schmidt — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:21:15 +0000

I have to discount any analysis that doesn’t take into account the signature ‘we hate you’ user experience provided by most carriers and handsets. Just having the ‘mp3 player’ bullet point on the feature list doesn’t make your handset a viable playback device. The iPhone+iTunes purchase-over-the-air experience is basically perfect. 30 seconds to find, purchase, download, and start playing a song — which then syncs seamlessly with my computer and AppleTV when I get home. Good luck getting that from Verizon + LG + the music studios. Ain’t going to happen.

By: MG Siegler

MG Siegler — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:31:42 +0000

@Fabian – I totally agree, any data on music phones that doesn’t include the iPhone should probably be reconsidered (I have a feeling they’ll change that shortly). Thanks for the link!

By: Fabian Schonholz

Fabian Schonholz — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:12:54 +0000

I think the definition of a music enable phone is way too narrow – based on the definition above. I have to agree with you regarding Steve Jobs’ foresight. But I think there are other factors that are longer termed. A while back I wrote a post on my blog regarding iPhone as part of a product road map for Apple.

http://www.fabianschonholz.com/2007/09/02/apple-the-iphone-and-product-development/