Why Do Cell Phones Often Have Cameras But Not MP3 Players?

[Rick Nebiolo]

I'm starting to think about finally replacing my tiny Nokia 8290 cell phone that annoyed Snakehead as described in this (http://tinyurl.com/65d4e) and this (http://tinyurl.com/5e7oo) thread.

I'm hoping for a small flip phone but wonder why so many phones have cameras (which seem to increase size, cost and complexity a bit)?

Why (other than gimmick value) would someone want a low quality camera on their cell phone?

And why wouldn't many people want a flash drive type MP3 player or file storage device instead? Seems to me combining a phone with a 256 MB MP3 would be great (especially if you don't like extra inorganic lumps in your pockets). I think I read that something like this may be coming, but I can't remember where.

~ Rick

[B Dids]

One exists, It's like a like Jay-Z phone from Motorolla.

I imagine that there's not much market because nobody wants something that holds less than an IPOD.

[scotnt73]

[ QUOTE ]
One exists, It's like a like Jay-Z phone from Motorolla.

I imagine that there's not much market because nobody wants something that holds less than an IPOD.

[/ QUOTE ]

im waiting for a phone that has all the functionality of the ipod plus it is a flip phone/walkie talkie. for a reasonable price of course. shouldnt be long,

[astroglide]

www.mobog.com (http://www.mobog.com)

[felson]

As B Dids observed, Motorola has produced an MP3-playing phone. It's available from Verizon Wireless. I'm not sure about other carriers.

Within the next six to twelve months, all the high-end cell phones will play MP3's.

EDIT: If you want a phone with the capacity of the Ipod, I don't think that will happen for several years at least. The hard drive is just too big.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
As B Dids observed, Motorola has produced an MP3-playing phone. It's available from Verizon Wireless. I'm not sure about other carriers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Didn't see it on Cingular.

[ QUOTE ]
Within the next six to twelve months, all the high-end cell phones will play MP3's.

[/ QUOTE ]

If so this is good news. I'm going to hand on to my old phone for another year at least.

[ QUOTE ]
EDIT: If you want a phone with the capacity of the Ipod, I don't think that will happen for several years at least. The hard drive is just too big.

[/ QUOTE ]

256 MB solid state memory would be fine as long as I can download a playlist from Musicmatch Jukebox to the phone on a USB port (don't have a player now but asume this is doable).

Anyway, thanks for the info.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

Astro,

Checked out the link and IMO it's case closed regarding value of cell camera phones /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

~ Rick

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
Astro,

Checked out the link and IMO it's case closed regarding value of cell camera phones /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

~ Rick

[/ QUOTE ]

rick you are such a perv, i bet you just want to take pictures of your wang...

http://www.mobog.com/pic.cfm?pic=115795

[GuyOnTilt]

The Motorola MPx220 is the only phone I can find that's A) a flip phone, B) plays MP3's, and C) supports Bluetooth. It'd be nice if it had SmartPhone, but hey, can't have everything. I'm not completely sold on it though just because something with the same features but slightly smaller may be released in the next few months... I freaking hate bulky pockets.

GoT

[astroglide]

make sure to set the view to uncensored

[liquidboss]

I work in the wireless industry and coincidently was talking about this with some coworkers a few days ago. My take on it was the manufacturers went with cameras over MP3 players because of pressure from the service providers. It's no secret that these companies have made millions from something as trivial as text messaging, picture mesaging was the next logical step.

T-Mobile, Cingular, and the like can charge .40 for you to send a picture message and they take very little actual data transferred. MP3 players on the other hand have no way to be billed. People just move the songs from their computer to their phone and never have to send anything over the network, therefore no money for the provider.

[felson]

The reason that the Motorola phone supports MP3 is because it uses a new modem chip from Qualcomm that supports MP3 decoding. Since most of the other manufacturers (LG, Samsung, etc.) for CDMA service (i.e., Sprint and Verizon) buy the same Qualcomm chips, they will be shortly introducing phones with the same features. It's like how Dell, Compaq, and Gateway computers all use Pentium chips, so they offer similar features. Hopefully some of the new phones will be smaller.

Qualcomm doesn't manufacture chips for Cingular, so I can't guarantee that Cingular will offer MP3 phones within a year. But I would be very surprised if they did not.

[felson]

When all else fails, try Google.

Nokia's find-a-phone page (http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/find_phone) allows you to search for phones that operate on Cingular and play MP3's. Currently they have three available: the 3300, the 6620, and the 6230. I don't know why you didn't see them at the Cingular stores, but they're on sale at the Nokia website. Probably best to check with a Cingular rep before buying though.