InBox:Mobile phones have been appearing in the iPod's rear-view mirror for a while, but very few have even looked like they could overtake the king of digital music, which recently sped past the 100 million sales mark, writes Mike Butcher.
But if all you really want to do is load a few MP3s on to your phone for that commute into work, there are plenty of options. BenQ-Siemens makes the E61, which does what it says on the tin: plays MP3s - if you can handle its no-frills budget appearance.
Yes, the plastic body and silver finish feels cheap and nasty, but at least the controls mounted on the top edge are a no-nonsense approach, with big play/pause, forward, back and volume buttons. Making calls and texting is straightforward enough, though the low-res VGA camera betrays its inexpensive status.
The LG U890 is also a phone targeted at music lovers. There is a lot to this MP3 phone, with a small screen on the outside of the flip, enabling you to switch to a quick blast of music quickly.
Transferring tracks via the PC is also easy enough. But that may be where the love affair ends. The phone is limited to a maximum of 512MB TransFlash memory and using the phone beyond the MP3 player is complicated by several unnecessary buttons.
Granted, the Motorola V3x - the 3G version of the Razr - has plenty of functions, but no external music controls outside its screen interface, which is very limiting. This plasticky phone does have a two-megapixel camera, and dragging and dropping MP3s into it via USB is easy. You can use the phone's A2DP to stream music wirelessly to a stereo Bluetooth headset.
Then there is the Nokia N91. This is a mobile and proper MP3 player in one package which can rival the smaller Apple Nano with a 4GB hard disk for storing around 1,000 music tracks. Despite its heftiness, the combination of Nokia's easy interface, a 3G-capable phone, and a "flight mode" which enables you to use it as just an MP3 player on a plane, makes this a very handy device.
The Sony Ericsson W810i is the most common music phone from Sony Ericsson around at the moment.
It's a workhorse of a phone, with a good camera and a featured-filled MP3 player. It holds around 120 songs or more on its 512MB memory card and you can start up in music-only mode, like the Nokia N91.
But if you don't want to go out and settle on any of these on the market, a couple of new models are either hotting up or about to hit the shops. Sony Ericsson is soon to update its Walkman phone with the W880, thinner than a CD case and music storage starts at an excellent 1GB card (comes in the box) allowing for 900 tracks and even album art.
Lastly, the Nokia N95, just released, is also going to be a hard customer to beat, if you can afford its higher price tag.
As well as sporting a five-megapixel camera, wifi and GPS built-in, the music player supports a plethora of music formats, a built-in equaliser and support for up to 2GB of memory.
So it looks like the iPod - and the iPhone, when it eventually arrives - may have its work cut out to pass the 200 million mark. Sony Ericsson sold around 17 million Walkman-branded cellphones in the past year alone. Watch out, Apple.
