@John in Norway:
There must be a lot of idiots out there. Somebody is buying all those (admittedly rather cheap) “USB stick” MP3 players …

As for using the phone instead of a DAP:
I fully agree with the battery argument – and for most phones the plug and sound quality issue.

Btw.: using a BT headset will run down your battery even faster …

I remember a couple of years ago buying a MP3 player. It was very basic – no bluetooth, no memory card slot. A week later I bought a proper phone (SE) and it took memory cards and had bluetooth stereo. The poor little DAP was confined to the bottom drawer.
Can you imagine a company today bringing out a crippled device without memory card slots or stereo bluetooth? You’d have to be a right idiot to buy one, wouldn’t you?

i just put my zen player in retirement for my new lg vx9700 dare it has a good music player and will play videos in 3gp i have a motorola s9 bluetooth headset for it and thats something you cant do with out an add on on on any of the mp3 player that I’ve seen with voice command i can tell it to play a song by name and still serf the web over the 3g with the music playing and it will do 8gb micro sd

A dedicated DAP is not much larger than a spare battery for my PDA.

I think that until a player, whether it be a phone or not, is going to struggle unless it offers the whole package ala itunes.

The best sounding player I ever had was my ipaq 6965 phone. Way bwtter audio quality than any ipod/iphone. It did EVERYTHING the iphone does two years ago but I never used it as a player because it was a pain to use. It was a pain to get music onto (WMP is very flakey for sync) and the players were just painfull to use.

You can make te best phone/player in the world but until, like the iphone, the average consumer can use it with out reading the manual I just can’t see it being successful.

Gordon

The main reason I think DAPs are here to stay is sound quality. And as long as there headphone fanatics, audiophiles, and even just people who wouldn’t be caught dead using stock earbuds, DAPs aren’t going anywhere.

On a side note, Creative sure is cranking out the new players. This is third new one in a few weeks! True, two of them haven’t been announced in the US yet, but it’s still interesting that Creative would update all of their lines (Stone -> Krystal; V series -> Mozaic; Zen -> Zen X-Fi) at the same time.

I agree Kevin but one thing to note is that Nokia and Sony Ericsson have included FM radios in there phones for years now to the point where I consider it a standard feature (even if it’s not one I actually use).

I don’t think there’s any real need to carry a seperate MP3 player when your phone can do everything and more. I suspect that’s also why Apple decided to release the iPhone when they did, to prevent other phones cannibalising iPod sales.

Frankly, I have never considered a DAP as I have always had a Windows Mobile Phone and use it to listen to podacsts and music especially since I can use the phone connection to download that media without having to connect to a computer to do so.

Steve

Nothing worse than to fly across the country/ocean and listen to music on your cellphone, just to run out of battery when you need to make that urgent call at the other end.

Well, okay, the plane crash-landing is worse.

If the iPhone worked as a business communications device this might become a trend. For now, battery life concerns, low capacity and bad user interfaces for media playing on other devices mean carrying separate DAPs and phones for most.

I’m about to pop an 8GB microSD into my Blackberry and try out the Blackberry media sync with iTunes. If this works well, I may be able to leave the iPod nano at home.

A positive for the Blackberry vs the iPod / two device scenario is that I can carry a second battery for the Blackberry. The negative is that battery weighs more than the iPod nano.

It’ll be the same as watch sales going down due to people using the clock on their phones instead.

I’ve got a very nice samsung 4gb mp3 player which I did use with my sony stereo bluetooth wireless headphones. Then work gave me a blackberry pearl 8120 which has stereo bluetooth built in. I was also given an 8gb microSD card for it.
My nice mp3 player now just gathers dust, but I’m happy as I only have to charge one device (blackberry).

Two reasons I don’t use my phone for music and video. (1) My iPod spoiled me when it comes to seamless integration between device and desktop for music purchases and music library synchronization. My attempts to create a similar solution for my Windows Mobile based phone were all grim failures. (2) Count me among those that refuse to use my phone for music or video due to battery concerns. Of the two reasons this is surely the biggest problem for me.

I suspect the dedicated DAP will be around for awhile yet. While it may seem like a great idea to have a whole lot of functionality (camera, DAP, PDA, phone) in a single package – the reality is that in many cases cell phones are being paid for by the employers, and many employers (mine included) have policies concerning the use/storage of personal music and other media files on Company-owned devices. So, either I keep a separate DAP, or I have 2 phones. The first sounds like the more cost-effective alternative.

~EdT.

Very few people I knew use their phone to listen to music. What surprises me is that the one area that dedicated players had the advantage, they’ve mostly walked away from – having a hard drive (and very large storage space). The smaller memory based players are nice (I prefer to use my Zen when I work out), but I bought an iPod classic (first apple purchase!) because of all the podcasts, audio books and videos I like to carry with me (not to mention my Napster to Go account). Throw in all the apps that a phone like the iPhone can make use of, and you’re limiting the memory even more.

GT2L: Am I reading correctly that you need 20-24 hours of continuous use out of a music phone? You do know that puts you in the niche market, right? Most people take breaks to sleep, eat, and take care of hygiene in a 24-hour period.