• June 26, 2007

While music-capable mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous in the U.S., very few of their owners are actually using them for music, according to a new JupiterResearch report.

The study, "Mobile Music: Target Impulse Purchases and Purchasers for Over-The-Air Downloads," found that only 2% of phone owners are downloading songs over the air--and only slightly higher, 5%, are transferring digital songs onto their phones. Nonetheless, 27.7 million consumers are expected to have music phones by the end of the year.

Faced with such factors as high costs for downloads and the prevalence of existing portable music players, JupiterResearch said that even the release of Apple's iPhone later this week will not have much of an effect on the overall picture. "While the iPhone could raise consumer awareness of, and interest in, music phones from other manufacturers and mobile operators, it is more likely to attract a unique market segment, hard for competitors to emulate," said Joe Laszlo, research director, JupiterResearch.