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Nokia the Next to Try an iTunes Killer?
fragmentate writes "Nokia recently acquired Loudeye Corp., a digital media distribution channel, presumably to offer streaming media to providers and their customers. BusinessWeek is speculating, 'the company may be seeking to go after none other than the 800-pound gorilla of the digital music world, Apple Computer. [...] Yet the Loudeye brand is virtually unknown when compared with that of Apple's hugely popular iTunes service. This gives carriers the chance to market their own brand instead, says P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research.'"
The Nokia N91 has been one of the most highly anticipated music phones. It was one of the phones touted to be an iPod killer, as it has a 4GB hard drive similar to the now defunct iPod Mini. After being delayed for some time now, the N91 is finally here, and Mobile Burn managed to get hold of one for a test drive. The Nokia N91 runs on Symbian OS v9.1 and, like the previously reviewed N71, it also features the much improved 3rd edition of the S60 user interface.
"Hehe, a nokia story, I'll mention n-gage and i'll get +5 funny" stupid slashbot moderators.
In all, 208.6 million desktops, notebooks and x86 servers left factories and workshops in 2005, according to IDC
Nokia remained the worldwide leader with 32.5 percent of all mobile phone sales in 2005 (see Table 2). It now has a market share that is more than double that of its nearest competitor in Europe and Asia, and more than three times its nearest competitor in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa - Gartner (table 2 will tell you that Nokia sold 265M phones last your - more than the combined PC market.
With 250 Million phones sold annually nokia can afford to make a "flop" like selling "only" 1.5 Million n-gages every now and then. Howabout this for perspective: 1.5M n-gages was more than he amount of palmone treos sold during the same period.
I don't think you understand why the iPod sells so well. Nobody is comparing the iPod features with its competitors and buying an iPod because it is more features for less money. If average people comparison shopped for music players, the iPod would be dead already.
I want something small, something that works, and something that I enjoy using (ie has exceptional industrial design). The iPod wins here. Why is Apple the only major consumer electronics company that seems to give a crap about good design? Beauty is subjective, but it would be hard to argue that Apple has failed with their product designs.
I definitely don't want a music player bundled with my phone (I have yet to see a phone that I consider well designed- the Moto Pebl, or whatever it's called, comes close). I do not want moving parts and definitely not something the size of a frickin' cd or dvd.
I currently have about a 10 GB audio collection and maybe 2-5% is music that I have copied from somewhere else. A big chunk of it is audio books and pod casts. Don't assume that all anybody uses their iPod for is music. If I could, I would probably have videos as well