Cell phones complete with music -- it's an idea that has definitely been on people's minds recently. After all, it's a tough challenge to unseat Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) grip on the portable music market. But many people think the ultimate portable device for showcasing music is the cell phone. Cingular Wireless is the latest company to announce a music-related addition.
Cingular, a joint venture between Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth (NYSE:BLS), said Tuesday that it will provide 40 channels of commercial-free music to its customers -- for a fee of $6.99 per month, plus airtime. The wireless company will be offering this service to its users through its deal with MobiTV, which also offers streaming video content.
Cingular's new offering is by no means surprising -- back in September, we learned that Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) had teamed with RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK) to offer a similar feature to users, for a similar monthly fee. Then in October, Sprint announced its own music service, which I covered here.
How much people want radio or even MP3 players on their cell phones remains to be seen. A salient case in point is the fact that Motorola's Rokr phone, distributed by Cingular and featuring a tie-in with Apple's iTunes, has apparently been underwhelming to consumers thus far.
I'm not entirely convinced that music via cell phones is really what people want, with the exception of personalized ring tones. As for the monthly fees that are associated with the services thus far, I'd bet that if people wanted to pay for radio, they'd simply fork over their money to XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) or Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI).
Music is, at the moment, one of the hottest and most quickly evolving areas, with so many companies trying to get in on the action -- it's no wonder that the wireless companies are trying to capture some of the revenues. For my own part, though, I have doubts as to whether users will be willing to up their monthly mobile bills for streaming radio, particularly when there's a certain hot device called the iPod. Many of us -- especially those who have invested in wireless concerns -- are surely eager to find out.
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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
