http://yahoo.smartmoney.com/barrons/index.cfm?story=20050629&afl=yahoo
A few quotes:
"Handset numbers overwhelm the iPod's. While optimists think Apple could sell 45 million iPods next year, mobile-phone makers will be selling more than 750 million handsets."
"Convenience and impulsiveness pay: Cellphone subscribers willingly spend two bucks for a six-second pop-song ringtone, while spending only 99 cents for the full-track song at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Ringtones are already a multi-billion dollar business for cellular firms and for recording companies."
"In selling digital content, the telcos have some considerable cost advantages over a company like Apple. With each sale from the iTunes Music Store, Apple must pay a billing cost of 10 to 20 cents to a credit-card company. The phone companies avoid that nick, because they're already sending their customers a monthly bill. So they could offer all manner of micro-priced musical-impulse purchases that iTunes can't match."
"Starting next year, a music player could be a more common feature than a digital camera on the 3G handsets of Nokia, Samsung and Motorola (MOT) because wireless carriers stand to make more money from music services than from snapshots. Nokia already promises digital music players in half the phones it will introduce this year."
A 2-page article that is well worth reading. (Hopefully my 4 quotes fall
within fair use.)
Let's hope Apple/Motorola can get their act together before the iPod
gets marginalized.
Cheers - Greg
A few quotes:
"Handset numbers overwhelm the iPod's. While optimists think Apple could sell 45 million iPods next year, mobile-phone makers will be selling more than 750 million handsets."
"Convenience and impulsiveness pay: Cellphone subscribers willingly spend two bucks for a six-second pop-song ringtone, while spending only 99 cents for the full-track song at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Ringtones are already a multi-billion dollar business for cellular firms and for recording companies."
"In selling digital content, the telcos have some considerable cost advantages over a company like Apple. With each sale from the iTunes Music Store, Apple must pay a billing cost of 10 to 20 cents to a credit-card company. The phone companies avoid that nick, because they're already sending their customers a monthly bill. So they could offer all manner of micro-priced musical-impulse purchases that iTunes can't match."
"Starting next year, a music player could be a more common feature than a digital camera on the 3G handsets of Nokia, Samsung and Motorola (MOT) because wireless carriers stand to make more money from music services than from snapshots. Nokia already promises digital music players in half the phones it will introduce this year."
A 2-page article that is well worth reading. (Hopefully my 4 quotes fall
within fair use.)
Let's hope Apple/Motorola can get their act together before the iPod
gets marginalized.
Cheers - Greg