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Apple’s iPhone – mp3 playback a commodity?

In a recent post on Jeremiah's Web Strategy Blog, he says that Apple must get into this space by accepting that mp3 playback will be a commodity. I guess I agree and disagree with this. mp3 playback on a computer is a commodity, but iTunes holds a huge share, and the iPod dominates the market for consumers' mp3 playback device choice. I'm not sure that cell phones will be any different because there's no clear market leader right now.

I'm in the market for a new cell phone, and although I love my BlackBerry, it doesn't have video playback or mp3 playback...plus I don't have cell service with my plan (it's provided by the day-job...sorry, data plan only!). So, I carry a separate cell phone, my Nokia 8862. The qwerty keyboard was great when I first purchased it (I e-mail, text message, and IM a lot), but I never use it anymore due to having the blackberry. I really would like a cell phone and mp3 player combination. In looking at my options, there really aren't any phones that dominate this category. Yes, there are many that can play music, but will they play my downloaded music from iTunes? No. Will they have the same familiar interface as the iPod? No. Will they have integration with my iTunes playlists? No.

For the millions of iTunes users, Apple's iPhone could potentailly fill a void in the market...even if Japanese phones referenced in the article make their way over to the states. Without knowing what or when the iPhone will be announced, it's hard to say much else about it...I can't wait to check it out. Will it offer purchasing of music directly from iTunes? Will it have large storage capacity? Can I use it to replace my dated (gen1) iPod Shuffle? How will it sync with my computer...usb, firewire, or both? I hope I'm not disappointed.