S60 device as music player - “good enough” for you already?
Steve Litchfield commented in our small online poll:
I’d like to see more recognition of S60 and S80 devices as music players. So many people these days assume that music playing on the move=iPod or similar. I know Nokia are gradually getting this message but it still needs ramming home further to every corner of the Symbian community - you only need to take the one device out with you.
Couldn’t agree more.
So here comes my two cents about S60 devices as music players.
Goodbye 2005, the year of music. Long live 2006, the year of music!
Throughout this year, everybody in the mobile industry - including official Nokia spokespersons - have boldly described the year 2005 as the year of music. Indeed, we have witnessed many interesting things during 2005, such as:
- Plethora of music focused devices such as Nokia N91, Nokia 3250, Nokia 6630 Music edition, SonyEricsson Walkman phones, Moto ROKR, Sendo X2 (history by now), and lots of others
- Strange bedfellows such as Nokia and Microsoft, Apple and Moto, …
- Operators’ full-track music download services
Wired Magazine wrote in November an excellent article “Battle for the Soul of the MP3 Phone”. Go and read it now. You will realize that bringing music experience to your phone is a darn difficult task. But the gravity is on our side - we are getting better and fast.
Disruption - what, where?
If you have read Clayton Christensen’s writings (Innovator’s Dilemma, Innovator’s Solution, Seeing What’s Next), you can’t avoid seeing the forces of disruptive innovation in play, when you watch the mobile industry evolving towards music. If you don’t have time to read the books, see Wikipedia’s entry about Disruptive Technology.
So I’ll state the obvious: Nokia’s S60 based devices (and other similar devices) are posing a disruption for dedicated mobile music player market.
I find it almost as a perfect text book example. I compare here specifically the market leaders, iPod and S60 devices, but the same applies to other similar devices.
- iPod is absolutely great as a stand-alone music player. It offers higher memory capacity and excellent music UI. But the latest S60 devices are becoming “good enough” for many people, and iPod’s advantages are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
- S60 devices offer added convenience (you need to carry only 1 device, over-the-air music buying)
- S60 devices offer increased flexibility (open platform, many add-on music apps)
- Transforming your S60 device into a music player costs less than a separate iPod (you only need to buy a large enough memory card).
- Memory is getting dirt cheap. (Moore’s Law. In 2003, you had to pay almost €100 for 128MB memory card. Now you can get a 512MB memory card for €50. And soon you can get gigabytes for a reasonable price)
What makes the game interesting, is that everybody knows what I stated above. And everybody also knows that the stakes are extremely high. For example, iPod accounts already a third of Apple’s net sales (source: Apple’s 10-K)
But let’s stop here. I don’t want to end up in headlines by saying something stupid like “screw the nano” 
End-to-end music solution on its way
In my opinion, Nokia has lacked a little behind in end-to-end music solutions, compared to dedicated music players. But also in this front we are getting better fast. I believe that the recent partnerships between Nokia and Loudeye, and between Nokia and Microsoft will make a big difference.
Stop talking and tell me how to convert my S60 device into “an iPod”!!
1. Make sure you have a “good enough” device
- What is “good enough”, depends on your preferences. Devices from Nokia 6630 onwards are good enough for me. But whatever you do, make sure your device has at least stereo output.
2. Buy a large enough memory card.
- If you respect yourself, get 512MB or more.
3. Get a good music player app.
- If you have an old S60 device with the built-in S60 music player app, install a better one. I strongly recommend the freeware / open source OggPlay application (check out also Steve Litchfield’s related article). There are also plenty of others (e.g. My-Symbian search for “mp3″). Or you can try to hunt Nokia’s new Music Player app from the blogosphere, as Nokia doesn’t seem to offer it officially.
4. Transfer the music to your memory card.
- I simply use an USB memory card reader to transfer the music files to my 512MB memory card. It is still the easiest way I know. It will get easier in the future: Nokia N91 already syncs with Windows Media Player. If you prefer iTunes, read Rafe Blandford’s article “How To: Use MSS for easier music transfer from iTunes”.
5. Enjoy!
6. Go find cool add-on music apps. And send your comments about them to this blog entry 
Rock on.
require software
Too bad that Ogg play doesn’t work with N Series…
Have a look at this forum thread for an N70 / N90 compatiable version of OggPlay.
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1368914&forum_id=294909
I can appreciate carrying only one device (I do it often!), but the cell phones I know and love don’t have the battery life to support several hours of music listening along with my usual cell phone uses (long phone calls, speakerphone use, etc.).
IMHO, it will only be when some of the newer battery technologies are incorporated, allowing for all-day (or two-day) use that a completely converged device — phone, camera, e-mail reader, web browser, music player) can be practical (not perfect, maybe, but acceptably practical).
For the Series 60 v2 devices, there is now a WMA player available at Handango called WMAPlus.
Strategy Analytics estimates that some 112 million music phones will be sold this year (more than double the number of MP3 players). This is some 12 % of all mobiles sold this year.
Nokia said Nokia it will ship more than 40 million mobiles with integrated music players this year.
6600 mp3 - suck
@rafe, i checked it but they still don’t have a solution… they tried, and played one track, which I also can in the Nokia music player embedded, but then, nothing. And what they did, the achievements they got, they’re not available there, right? Thanks anyway! They’re trying. That’s the important stuff:)
Yes, “music phones” are selling hundreds of millions, but I think most of them don’t qualify as serious music players, and won’t be used as such. But then again, they will probably become soon “good enough” for many people, who then won’t bother to buy a separate iPod shuffle (or something like it) anymore.
The battery life is a serious challenge. Innovations in battery life don’t seem to keep up with other innovations in mobile devices…
I agree with you. We can manage to play music and newer phones are getting better. But the battery problem is a serious turn off. Something needs to be done about it.
All S60 & S80 phones should come with NATIVE mp3/ogg/wma support, with a EXCELLENT player application - so good that 3rd parties won’t even waste their time creating one.
A one-touch “MUSIC” button should be added to the keyboard so users don’t have to waste time fiddling through menus.
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