Music phones? Maybe ...

Will music-playing cell phones kill the iPod? Wired News' Katie Dean gets a reality check from industry analysts and other experts, who are skeptical, to say the least:

"We don't see this as a displacement any more than digital cameras were displaced by camera phones," said Michael Gartenberg, research director with Jupiter Research. "As long as music phones command a significant premium over regular phones then it's going to be difficult to see how the consumer will embrace them."

Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC, said there are some consumers who want to load their phones up with features like music, games and video, but plenty of others still prefer devices like the iPod that do one thing, and do it well.

"We think there's going to be a very large middle area where people will use both types of devices," she said. ...

Analysts cautioned that in order for music fans to buy mobile music, it's got to be easy and convenient.

"There is a lot of hype being generated about this and we've got to come back to (a) fundamental understanding of the emerging digital-media consumer and the massive number of choices they have," said Mike McGuire, research director at Gartner/G2. "I don't think they are going to react well to having these islands of content. I don't know that they are going to want to manage all that."