Imagine a diminutive cell phone that morphs into a stand-alone music system when you’re on a long haul flight. Just switch it to Flight Mode, sit back and let your favourites blast away. Or would you rather buy a phone with a humongous 8GB memory so you can store a whopping 6,000 of your best loved numbers and can switch seamlessly from phone calls with the flick of a key.

That’s not all: if you are a sporty type who is also mad about music, here’s just the phone for you. It won’t just give you a high-octane music but will also keep a tab on your exercise regimen — measure your running speed, the distance covered and the time taken — like a pedometer.

Welcome to a world of high performance multimedia, multi-function devices that have it all — e-mail, the Internet, camera and video, and most of all, music. In an era of mobile digital convergence, your cell phone can be many things — including your very own jukebox. “Ten years ago the idea of fitting an entire music library in a device, the size of a packet of cigarettes, was inconceivable. Today a mobile phone has evolved from a communication device to an experience device,’’ says Vineet Taneja, director, Multimedia, Nokia India.

“There’s a war brewing to tap the music buff who has figured it out that the cell phone is just as good at playing music. Today, the music phone has become the hottest selling item,’’ says Rajiv Makhni, tech guru and gadget columnist. So for music aficionados like businessman Pradeep Chawla, a music phone becomes an extension of his lifestyle. “For people like me who don’t want to carry around two devices — a phone and a music player — such phones are a boon.’’

And technology is readily available today to make a cell phone do double duty as an MP3 player and mobiles are gearing up to become veritable portable music libraries. So you can effortless switch your phone from being just that — a phone — to an MP3 player and back again.

Small wonder then that companies are bending backwards to load their handsets with gobs of memory, generous data storage coupled with serious acoustic capabilities. Says Taneja, “Music forms a vital component of the mobile multimedia experience. The effort is to enable consumers to enjoy music on the go.”

Music companies too are dancing to this happy tune as industry figures hit a high note. The mobile music arena is 10 times larger than iTunes and four times bigger than gaming. It’s expected to breathe new life into India’s music industry, which has shrunk from Rs 1,400 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in the last four years. It also contributes about 5 per cent to the total music industry revenues and is expected to grow to nearly 23 per cent by 2010. (Source: IDC, CIOL, KPMG). If you think that’s too high a note, remember that global giant Nokia claims to have sold close to 40 million music devices (with MP3 players) worldwide in 2005.

Which really means that now you can carry more music in your pocket than you possibly stash away at home. It’s possible to personalise your music with a choice of digital music tracks and simply press a dedicated music key for tuning in. The integrated stereo speakers and the music-optimised headsets and remote controls are changing the way you listen to music. Today’s phones usually support MP3, WMA, M4A and AAC music formats. This makes loading, transferring and playing music easy as easy can be. And then you can also download songs over-the-air and even set them as ringtones.

Makhni splits the phones into two categories: music playing phones and dedicated music players. He says that while countless phones ‘can’ play music, phone companies offer a battery of showstoppers in the latter range. If Nokia has an iPod killer in its new N91 (with a capacity to carry some 6,000 songs), the Walkman series is impressing music gadget buffs.

And Samsung can show off the D820 with 73MB internal and expandable memory while the ace up its sleeve is the i310 that offers a 8GB hard disk capable of holding 8,000 songs and the X830 with a 1GB hard disk. These will be hitting the Indian market soon, says Samsung’s Yuvraj Mehta. Motorola’s repertoire too is growing and some of its phones that music buffs are going for include the slick V3i (Rs 14,495) and the SLVR L7 (Rs 12, 820).

As Mobile Asia rang off recently, the market was hit by a slew of sound products and the music junkie couldn’t have asked for more. The new version Nokia N91 supports a host of digital music formats (that’s the M4A, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, Real V8, WAV, AWB, SP-Midi and WMA), offers some 12.5 hours of seamless digital sound and can store twice as many songs as the earlier N91 (this one is priced at Rs 29, 799).

Meanwhile Nokia Music Connect Nseries upped its range to include more memory and Internet on the phones while also fitting them with upgraded software for music management. The N80 for its part will now not only give you the chance to listen to music on the move but comes with WiFi Internet connectivity embedded in the phone. The brand’s upgraded Nseries with the N70, the N73 and N80 offers more capacity than the existing models.

Another firm that’s making sweet music is Sony. Its Walkman Series of phones brings the brand’s legendary sound quality into its mobiles like the tiny W810i and also offer the very handy in-flight option. If the brand’s cheerfully orange W810i, W700i and W300i were created for enhanced listening pleasure Mobile Asia saw the unveiling of three more Walkman phones. The W950i (Rs 30,995) offers 4GB onboard storage, the W710i (Rs 15,495) is for sporty people who like listening to music while exercising, and the W850i (Rs 21,975) which ensures easy music downloads. Sudhin Mathur, General Manager, Sony Ericsson India, says, “These are re-defining the way people enjoy music.”

LG’s Chocolate has been screaming style for a while. Says H S Bhatia, National Product Group Head, GSM Phones, LG Electronics India, “It’s aimed at users who value style as much as they do technology.”

Even as LG rides the crest after Chocolate caught the eye of fashionistas (it won prestigious design awards for its seductive looks and aesthetic user interface), it is poised to launch the Dynamite KG 300 (Rs 9,999). This one will arm you with 60MB in-built memory, plug and play option, external memory card slot, USB Charging, MP3 player, FM radio and recording, as well as the in-flight mode. The phone comes with a stereophonic headset kit and a USB data cable.

More style comes with the Motorola’s new MotoKRZR. The MotoKRZR (Rs 16,990) that has a stylish solid glass front, full suite of multimedia services, stereo Bluetooth headset support, an integrated music player and expandable memory up to 1GB.

But with such a wide choice at hand what should a music phone really give you? Makhni says, “A good music player should offer enough in-built capacity to store many songs. It must manage music well and offer good audio quality.’’ It should sync quickly and easily with your computer and should play music from iTunes or any other music service. And most of all it must have hard-coded play buttons that are visible on the outside of the phone. “The users shouldn’t have to navigate through the menu or have to press the keys many times to get to the music mode,’’ he says.

Piggy-backing on the mobile music wave come the add-ons. Mathur of Sony says that seeing the huge response towards the Walkman Series, the company launched Music Desk Stand Speakers and portable speakers. There’s more: virtual radio and multiple FM radio channels are offering users a wider audio choice.

Along with launching an array of multimedia devices and applications, the phone companies are strengthening their retail strategies too. Nokia, for instance, will be setting up exclusive Nokia Nseries Experience Zones in over 10 malls this year and another 10 by 2007. Additionally, exclusive Nokia Nseries Experience zones will be set up in over 600 Nokia outlets across the country.

And the best news is that Makhni is optimistic about the future of the music phone. “Given the way technology is percolating down, by mid-2007 practically every phone will be able to play music.’’ For the companies it’s the divine sound of cashing registers ringing and for buyers, it’s just sweet ear candy?

Steamy sales pitch? Sonorous symphony of excess? Whatever. The future of Alexander Graham Bell’s voice transmitting contraption has been reforged forever for rhythms divine.

Photo finish

Rohit Chawla, adman and fashion photographer, loves his 3 megapixel Nokia N73. Unhampered by regular camera trappings, he goes location scouting for his campaigns and captures them on his phone. “The sheer convenience of the device obviates the need to carry a camera,’’ he says. The camera phone is setting off as much impulse shooting as being put to serious use by professionals as they now come fitted with cameras that range from 1.3 to 10 megapixel.

H S Bhatia of LG Electronics says, “This segment of phones is reportedly bagging some 30 per cent of the GSM market share today.’’ He adds that camera phones are creating a buzz due to their falling prices and the high quality photographs they give.

Now with your phone it is possible to shoot photos and in a matter of moments e-mail these to across the globe. Besides the 1 megapixel camera phones doing the rounds, other high-end camera phones come with in-built flash, most are capable of shooting video segments (like Nokia’s twist and shoot N93 that gives DVD quality videos) while others can shoot pictures in a sequence, like Sony Ericsson’s newest K790i. Press the shutter button of the 3.2 megapixel camera and get nine frames — four photos before and four photos after the actual image is captured. Samsung’s latest, the D900, is the brand claims, the world’s slimmest 3 megapixel slider phone. Globally, the brand is also touting the 10 megapixel B600, the one of its kind yet.

Meanwhile Nokia’s Nseries phones come with cameras: the N73 with a 3.2 megapixel and the N80 with a 3 mega pixel camera. Come 2007 and Nokia will unleash the N95, a 5-mega pixel camera that’s been dubbed as the ultimate convergence device as it’s also a high-end music player with some seven hours of playback.

Lead photograph by Rashbehari Das

Models: Ishika (carrying a Sony Ericcson w850i) and Neeraj (carrying a Nokia N91)

Mobile phones courtesy: Arora’s D P Electronics; 6, Madan Street, Calcutta — 72. Ph: 2212 7795.