ABI Research has a great article about the perspectives of pure MP3 players. Now when the hard drives are the part of the mobile phone (as in Nokia N91), this could spell the beginning of the end for the portable MP3 players.
Short article, since you have to pay for the ABI Research’s subscription Wireless Semiconductors Research Service. However, one thing seems certain – at present, portable MP3 players still lead in their memory capabilities: high-end devices can hold as much as 30 or 60 GB. But there will be a point of diminishing returns beyond which a user doesn’t care whether the device can store 2000 songs or 7500.
Fun read, and I’m certain that Nokia is reading this as well. And luckily, we will see more hard-drive powered phones in the future. 🙂