News

Growth of Cell Phone Storage Cards Could Hurt iPod

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 1:50 PM - by

As the average capacity of cell phone storage cards hits 1.6GB by 2010, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple's incredibly popular iPod could feel the squeeze. Gene Koprowski, writing for MacNewsWorld, added that a report from the company showed the sale of cell phones with storage card slots leaped 160% from 2004 to 2005.

"The 2 GB MultiMediaCard (MMC) from Samsung could spark the convergence trend for mobile phones, raising the level of competition Apple's iPod battles in the marketplace," Mr. Koprowski wrote. It can hold nearly 12 hours of video and is fast enough to download three hours of video in under two minutes.

He said that the sale of slotted cell phones is projected to grow 52% annually, on average, with nearly 75% of the phones sold in 2010 including such capability. "Sales of memory cards for cell phones, meanwhile," he wrote, "are expected to grow at a rate of 53 percent over the next five years, reaching almost 1.1 billion cards by 2010."

8 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1933 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:02 pm

I guess it's possible. But all those people with 1.6 GB cell phones in 2010 will probably be jealous of my 250 GB widescreen movie-iPod.

Quote this post ↓

ListenHere said:

member since 25 Apr 2006 with 3 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:41 pm

This makes alot of sense. If I had to decided between a cell and an ipod OR a cell phone that holds music and movies, I'd choose that one. I dont need to walk around with 300 movies in my pocket, but walking around with a few hundred songs and a couple of movies would work just nicely. Why should i spend 400 bucks on an ipod if i have a phone that does all the same things?

Quote this post ↓

jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 567 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:48 pm

"This makes alot of sense. If I had to decided between a cell and an ipod OR a cell phone that holds music and movies, I'd choose that one. I dont need to walk around with 300 movies in my pocket, but walking around with a few hundred songs and a couple of movies would work just nicely. Why should i spend 400 bucks on an ipod if i have a phone that does all the same things?"

I see where you're going with this, but:

1. Cell phones that play hundreds of songs, including those from Motorola, are already available and they haven't slowed the iPod yet.

2. These cell phones' music capabilities are more in line with a low end iPod (between a shuffle and a nano), not a $400 iPod. And by 2010, the iPod's capabilities will have vastly improved, along with cell phones.

3. It's difficult to provide a good user interface on a small "convergence device," as demonstrated by the music phones already on the market. The iPod's success is owed primarily to its well regarded interface.

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:40 pm

By 2010 ????? what could do what ????? Get a life.

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:44 pm

This 'anal'-ysis assumes a lot.

Like that Apple will never improve the iPod, and that the cell phone manufacturers will ever grow a pair and offer cell phones tailored to end users' needs rather than the desires and whims of the carriers.

Quote this post ↓

gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:18 pm

From the article:

Quote
... added that a report from the company showed the sale of cell phones with storage card slots leaped 160% from 2004 to 2005.

When will journalists wake up and take a short course in math? Reporting percentage changes means exactly nothing unless one knows the base number. If there were 1,000 such cell phones sold in 2004, that would mean 2,600 sold in 2005, hardly a drop in the proverbial bucket. It is irresponsible and lazy to report percentage changes like this. The original report, of course, probably used the percentage change in order to make the increase seem larger than it was. Reminds me of a politician I heard claim that, while he was mayor, the local murder rate had been cut in half. What he didn't say was that it went from 2 to 1.

Quote this post ↓

BradC said:

member since 29 Apr 2005 with 80 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:18 pm

If you owned a company that sold 1,000 of a product one year and then 2,600 of it the next, you wouldn't find that significant?

Considering that sales of cell phone storage cards are projected to hit 1.1 billion by 2010, I'd say there's a huge difference between the 160% jump cited in the article and your example of a murder rate going from 2 to 1.

Quote this post ↓

Dean Lewis said:

member since 29 Sep 2001 with 155 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:32 am

"Sorry, I can't take your call right now. I'm watching 'Look Who's Talking 5' while driving to work. Please leave a message, and I'll get back to you after the movie is finished."

"And in other news, a 52 car pile-up on I-498 has been attributed to some jackhole driving while watching a movie on his cellphonopod. Word is the movie wasn't worth his life. A message on the phone indicated he had just won the lottery. Wait, can we say 'jackhole' on the news? Who's on the teleprompter today?"

Quote this post ↓

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.


Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.