The new BANDwagon of Sony Ericsson, Motorola / Apple, and Nokia
Last month, Sony Ericsson released the W800i, a repackaged K750i
Last week, Apple announced the ROKR, a repackaged Motorola E398
Today, Nokia announced the N6630 Music Edition. a repackaged N6630.
So why is everyone jumping onto the music bandwagon?? And more importantly, why are they merely repackaging phones? Do these phone manufacturers feel that they can subvert the minds of the typical consumer by spraying on a new coat of paint and including a large memory card — and da-dah! Music phone! (with an additional $$$ worth of royalties to make lots and lots of money!!)
More than anything, the music player phone is more of a marketing victory than technological advancement. In retrospect, the technology has always been there - never were the speakers or music software improved drastically.
There were just three drastic changes to how these phones were packaged. First, the physical pigmentation was changed to fit the new hype. The ROKR is iPod white, the W800i takes the Walkman two-tone orange/mother-of-pearl and the 6630 takes a hot red chic faceplate.
Second, more storage space for songs has been included, as opposed to it being optional before. The W800i has a 512MB card. The ROKR can hold an additional 75 (100 total) songs internally and the 6630 comes with a larger capacity memory card of 256MB.
Third, its not about the speaker, but about the headphones. The W800i comes with expensive In-Ear SE headphones. The 6630 comes with a 3.5mm audio jack and adaptor while the ROKR comes with matching iPod earphones.
Trust me on this one — the next phone manufacturer that decides to come up with a “shooting from the hip” music phone will heed these three points well (off the record, because of lack of time for planning and R&D). The power of marketing.. it’s so compelling!
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2 opinions for The new BANDwagon of Sony Ericsson, Motorola / Apple, and Nokia
Mike Mapa
Sep 21, 2005 at 12:12 am
As far as music phones are concerned, perhaps Samsung is the one who has the most striking offering, right now: the SGH-i300, which has 3GB of storage. But then, given the new high-capacity memory chips that make the iPod Nano possible, I think many new phones next year will have mega-storage capacities like the i300. So maybe the iPod Nano will have a short reign.
Jayvee
Sep 21, 2005 at 11:15 pm
ive seen the specs on the i300 - in fact it looks much like an iPod with the scroll wheel. of course, a 3GB player with iPod like functionability will cause some ruckus - but in the end its still about the (easy to use) user interface, battery life, and stylish design (check!).
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