Digital Convergence and the Device Wars – Will Cellphones Kill the IPod?
A quick background fact: As of early 2009, you can get a 2GB music player for about 20 bucks. You can "rip" your pet 60-70 CDs into mp3 files and carry them around with you on a device about the size of a pack of gum. That's pretty incredible, right?
Well, how about this: AT&T, Verizon and the other mobile biggies have rolled out dozens of models from Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and other manufacturers that don't just play downloaded tunes, but have removable flash memory for playing the mp3 files you already own. On a two-year plot, some of these phones are even free, while others range from $29 to hundreds, depending on all the features you want. Is the touchtone phone the eventual form factor that the long-awaited "digital union" will choose as the winner in the Device Wars?
A bit of history
America did the right thing in rebuilding the Japanese economy after World War II and selection the other Asian "tigers," as well. These nations take U.S. design and technology and work wonders with the "ergonomics," the look and feel and playability of a consumer product. Early in the mid- to late-1990s, they delivered various mp3 music players that connect to computers via USB (and a few via Firewire); use both built-in and removable flash memory, as well as one after another new generations of 1- and 1.8-inch hard disc drives; some models even have FM radios and voice tape capabilities. The number of product choices is truly astrophysical.
These flash memory types of music players were frequently less pricey than their hard disk-based counterparts. In fact, most of the media players that still use hard drive technology are the ones with screens that also play videos, in a diversity of compressed formats (avi, mpeg, mp4, h.264, etc.). For music, it's pretty much flash-memory-based players, and with laptops (and the mini netbooks) pouring the SSD (Solid State Drive) market, larger capacities at lower prices are on the horizon.
Enter the smart (and super) phones
The touchtone phone makers have seen this all coming and were not caught unprepared. Over the last several years, more and more telephones have been prepared with music-playing capabilities. At first, the phone companies tried to tie the customer to a download-only model, but ran into resistance from patrons who had already invested money and time in their mp3 collections. They wanted to use their own music, and the hackers in the crowd set about devising workarounds so that they could download their own tunes.
Phone companies and other Huge Biz Boys are not stupid, and saw the need to accommodate the music lovers. Result? There are dozens of phones now on the market that will play your mp3 files from, for the most part, the Mini Secure Digital (MiniSD) cards. As of early 2009, a 4GB MiniSD card goes for about $6, and the form factor goes all the way to 16GB. That's quite a bit of music.
What else is converged?
The smarter phones also have keypads, e-mail and web capabilities, widescreen displays, multi-megapixel still and video cameras, walkie-talkie functionality and all manner of other technogoodies. Is it doable, with all these features rolled into one unit, that the iPod and other mp3 players could be threatened with extinction? Some pundits say so. According to the most excited (and excitable) industry watchers, the coming generations of "converged phones" will be the single digital device most people will carry. Is this really doable?
Doubtless not. Cellphones have still not reached the social infiltration point, not yet anyway. Plenty of people do not have them, or cannot afford the models that offer the union features. Perhaps in another 10 years? Of course, there are other considerations, like array time, convenience factor, download hassles, etc. In fact, there are still a lot of other changes coming down the pike vis-à-vis cellphones. Several timepiece cell phones were just introduced, for example.
Oh, and they're mp3 music players, too.
Author: Scott McQuarrie
Condition Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets
