May 10, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Songs from a mobile phone should bring music to your ears
By Mark Rutter

LONDON, May 10, Graphic News:  By the end of this year you should be able to download music directly to your mobile phone wherever you are and whenever you want. Thanks to the new Nokia N91, it will be possible to store up 12.5 hours of music -- or around 3,000 songs -- either copied from a PC or downloaded straight from the internet.

The N91 owes its large storage capacity to a 4 gigabyte hard disk -- which is about the storage capacity of the average PC hard disk drive around five years ago. Able to handle several file formats, such as MP3, M4A and WMA, this N91 Òmobile jukeboxÓ can quickly connect to and search the internet using a number of connection options, including 3G and Bluetooth wireless technology. Nokia claims that its sleek design, with a stainless steel case and buttons dedicated to music functions, makes it particularly easy to use. It is also compatible with a range of headphone types and other accessories made by several manufacturers. Furthermore the N91 has a two mega-pixel camera, email facility, a full internet browser and video capability.

This versatility has convinced Nokia that its latest product is set to challenge the dominance of AppleÕs iPod. The immensely popular iPod looks unlikely to be surpassed overnight however, after clocking up 5.3 million sales in the first three months of 2005. Retailing at around 320 euros in Europe for a 20 gigabyte hard drive, it costs considerably less than the N91, which should be available in November for around 700 euros. The 99 cents cost of downloading a song to the iPod is also half the anticipated $2 cost of acquiring a song for a mobile phone.

The concept of downloading and storing music to a mobile is not new. The technology, and indeed the huge public appetite, for downloading ringtones has been around for some time. And several manufacturers are now putting hard disks into mobile phones to enable them to function as music players: Samsung has developed a 3 gigabyte phone which can store up to 1,500 songs. By combining easy downloading from the internet with large storage capability, phone makers and music service providers are now looking to provide a brand new service. Demand for such a service they believe will be helped by the ready-made market of around 1.4 billion existing mobile phone users. Added to this are the on-going developments including the ability for wireless download of music video clips and lyrics, and even larger hard discs for increased storage. These factors might yet give it the edge over the iPod with its current reliance on the PC for up-loading songs.
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