The market for full-track music downloads to mobile devices was 20 times larger at the end of 2005 than it was 12 months earlier, according to a study from ABI Research entitled, "Mobile Music Services", which looked at world markets for downloads of full music tracks, ringtones and ringback tones.

The study found that global revenues from over-the-air (OTA), downloaded, full-track songs last year were $251 million, up from $12.4 million in 2004. ABI Research forecasts that by 2011 this figure will be $9.3 billion.

But it might take much of the interim time to fuel the rocket that is going to launch big-time sales of music-capable phones. In spite of the phenomenal growth of dedicated MP3 players during 2005, and with Apple’s iPod paving the way for converged music/cellular devices, an In-Stat study nevertheless found that user interest in having this capability within their wireless phone did not move forward much in 2005. The ability to play digital music on a handset was one of the more popular multimedia applications cited by respondents in an In-Stat survey of U.S. consumers; but with just nine percent expressing any interest, it is really not a compelling feature to many, the high-tech market research firm reported. 

Still, In-Stat expects the number of cellular phones with multimedia capability will grow dramatically because of other business factors. Two of the reasons include:

1)  The greatest interest for multimedia viewing in the In-Stat U.S. consumer survey was for receiving real-time news, weather, sports and financial information.

2)  Those willing to consider paying for such services would pay an extra $20 for the phone, but believed that $15 monthly was too much to pay for service delivery.

However based on recent developments, wireless service providers are clearly certain that music should be a core feature of their handsets, starting right now. Last year Sprint became the first music download service that lets customers download and store full-length songs on their line-up of EV-DO cell phones for $2.50 per song. The songs are sold as so-called "dual downloads," meaning customers receive two copies of the song – one for their phone and another for their PC. As of April 2006 more than two million songs had been downloaded from the music site since it was launched, according to Sprint.

At the 2006 International CES, Verizon launched its V Cast music download service. Customers need a V Cast-enabled phone and a subscription to access music on their phones. V Cast Music songs cost $0.99 if purchased from the PC or $1.99 if purchased and downloaded over-the-air onto a V Cast Music phone. The V Cast Music store lets customers browse, preview, download and play digital music from their phones. Verizon Wireless reports that its customers now have access to more than one million songs through V Cast Music.

Even with the addition of multimedia features, when it comes to handset design, thin continues to be hip. Motorola recently unveiled the sweet-sounding RAZR V3m, a music-enhanced CDMA version of its popular super-slim handset. Featuring an integrated music player and as much as one GB of optional removable MicroSD memory, the RAZR V3m lets consumers rock and roll to their favorite tracks while on the go. The handset also is equipped with stereo headset support, Bluetooth wireless technology, speech recognition calling, an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera and video-capture and playback capabilities.

Taking advantage of its Walkman brand recognition among audio consumers, Sony Ericsson announced seven Walkman phones in less than a year, targeted at numerous customer segments. With 256 megabytes of internal memory, the W600i Walkman phone stores as many as ten full-length CDs or between 80 and 120 songs, depending on the compression rate. The W600i Walkman phone includes Bluetooth wireless connectivity and is quad-band, allowing it to be used all over the world. A unique music flight mode setting turns off the mobile phone transmitter so consumers can listen to music anywhere – even on an airplane.