Can Your Music Phone Replace Your MP3 Player?

The iPod took the world by storm, introducing a device that allows you to take your CD collection anywhere. Now, cellular phone manufacturers are trying to cash in on the craze by combining two things people love—their phone and their music. However, the real question is “can your music phone really replace your MP3 player?”

The answer—it depends. For a long time, most cellular music phones just didn’t have enough internal memory, and sound quality was too iffy to make everyone dump their 80GB portable video/audio device. Additionally, the ones that could compete with MP3 players are so expensive the average garage band enthusiast can’t afford them.

However, technology is quickly advancing and in the very near future, everything you need will be on one super-miniature machine. Think of the pads they use in Star Trek that allow you to read, write, research and watch video all on the same screen.

Currently, Apple is trying to revolutionize the cellular phone industry (as they did the music industry) with the help of their famous iPhone. The iPhone now comes with storage capacity to rival most flash MP3 players.

In the past, either the music features or the cellular features were sacrificed in a music phone. But, Apple has upped the ante with the iPhone, possibly the first truly dual purpose cellular/music phone. Soon after, all the other cellular phone manufacturers began jumping on the hard drive bandwagon, trying to keep up with the Apple.

However, combining your entire life into one device can be a little dangerous, it’s like putting all your eggs in one basket. If the basket falls, you loose it all. If for any reason one feature stops working, you are now forced to buy another several hundred dollar phone/MP3 player.

A major concern that many people have is buying devices tied to carriers. The iPhone is sold exclusively through AT&T, forcing those on other carriers to switch providers if they want to get their hands on the device. Difficulties come into play if you like iTunes but not AT&T, and you’d rather have a Firefox browser instead of Safari.

If we start combining all of our essential functions into one device we are at the mercy of the larger powers that be to choose which programs, software, web services and downloads we can use.

Soon everything you will need will be located in one convenient place, will include hundreds of gigabytes of space and will be affordable to the average person. But, will we give up our freedom of choice—technology and time will tell.