Telemóveis (e convergência) vencem iPods

«Well, the war is finally over: and the mobile phone has emerged as the winner on two key fronts. For most buyers it will be the device of choice for playing music and taking photographs. I have been trying out some of the latest mobile phones and there has been a big increase in the quality and quantity of the tracks they play, while mobile phone cameras - especially with the release of 3- and 5-megapixel models, such as the Nokia N80 and the LG KG920 - are now as good as the standard digital cameras of a couple of years ago.

There will always be lots of people wanting dedicated cameras or iPods, but the majority of people in future will opt to have all these functions on one device rather than two or three. They already are. It is no coincidence that in the first quarter, when Apple suffered a sharp drop in iPod sales (blaming it, implausibly, on seasonal factors), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said that half of all digital music sold in 2005 went directly to mobile phones (including ringtones).

The decline of iPod sales continued in the second quarter, while sales of music-enabled mobile phones soared. Nokia alone, a late entrant to music, plans to ship 80m music phones this year (almost double last year's iPod sales). Sony Ericsson is enjoying success with its popular Walkman phone, as is Motorola with its Razr, while LG's Chocolate was Carphone Warehouse's biggest ever seller.

fonte: Guardian, Dump your iPod, the mobile's taking over, Victor Keegan, August 24, 2006