Mobile music to kill the MP3 player?

MP3 players face an uncertain future as analysts predict music-enabled mobiles will outnumber standalone MP3 devices by five to one come 2012.

More than half of the one billion mobile handsets shipped globally are expected to have music-playing capabilities in 2007, analyst house Portio Research predicts.

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MP3-enabled handset sales are expected to be highest in northern and western Europe with 95 per cent of mobiles predicted to be MP3-enabled by 2011 in the region, the research reveals.

A spokesman from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told silicon.com mobile music sales have been growing rapidly, particularly in Asia, but there's still a large, untapped market for accessing music on mobiles.

The increased consumption of digital music will boost the global music market, with worldwide revenues expected to rise from $32.1bn in 2006 to $38.8bn come 2011, according to Portio.

The IFPI spokesman said the future of the digital music market is difficult to predict with lots of innovations expected to come "from the left-field" which will stimulate the market over the next few years.