As a follow-up to my earlier post on future of music, NY Times has this interesting article that further reaffirms some of the points of that post:
The hot topic among mobile phone executives gathered here for a cellphone trade show is the push to transform handsets into portable music players. By next year, phone makers expect to market several phones that will allow people to store and listen to songs and even download them wirelessly over cellular networks.
They have ample reason to push the music feature. Competition to acquire and retain mobile customers is brutal, and the carriers are looking for new streams of revenue, like taking a cut for selling songs.
Edward S. Snyder, a wireless industry analyst with Charter Equity Research, said that while he had been skeptical of new phone features, he was optimistic about music phones. Mr. Snyder said that listening to music, unlike watching TV or reading e-mail, could be done while the user was on the move. Such mobility, he said, is the essence of wireless communications and makes for a potentially successful marriage with music.