Perhaps the biggest threat to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod and the portable music player industry is a device already nestling in a billion pockets: the mobile phone.
Sales of cellphones that can store and play back music are climbing, raising hopes among handset producers like Sony Ericsson and Motorola Inc. that it will be their next growth driver.
Music phones may never kill off the market for the stand-alone music players of Apple, Sony, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Reigncom Ltd. and others, but they could dent the market’s potential.
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