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Most Korean mobile phones equipped
with MP3
SEOUL - Mobile
phones with color screens and digital cameras,
once must-have items for consumers, are quickly
becoming old hat as the fashionably hip turn to
handsets with built-in MP3 players, industry
sources said Monday.
Of the 15 million
mobile phone handsets expected to be produced in
South Korea this year, 70% will boast built-in MP3
players. South Korea's three largest handset
makers - Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics
Inc and Curitel Communications Inc - alone plan to
equip 80% of their products with the portable
music playback function.
"Since Samsung
and LG unveiled their 7-megapixel and 5-megapixel
camera phones, respectively, last year, the market
has moved toward MP3 phones," an industry source
said. "Mobile phone operators actively marketing
mobile MP3 services are also contributing to the
boom in portable music handsets," he added.
Major foreign manufacturers, including
Nokia, Motorola, and Sony-Eriksson, are also
eyeing the MP3 phone market and partnering with
music software developers, signaling a big
industry push toward portable music phones. South
Korea is set to become a test marketplace for the
MP3 phones and can expect to make a significant
contribution to international mobile phone
culture, industry analysts said.
"It has
been true until now that MP3 phones could not
compete with normal MP3 players, but more and more
cellular phones are being introduced now with
functions equal that of existing stand-alone MP3
players," said an official from Samsung. "More
consumers will want to enjoy their music on their
mobile phone rather than on a MP3 player," he
added.
Samsung and LG, the world's third
and sixth largest handset producers, respectively,
began incorporating MP3 players across their
mobile phone range from April last year, once a
copyright dispute with the South Korean music
industry had been resolved.
(Asia
Pulse/Yonhap) |
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