M:Metrics has just released some fascinating statistics on how music phones have penetrated the market in the UK.
According to a study of all 220 mobile phones that play music in the UK, ten key models account for almost half of mobile music consumption. Unsurprisingly the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones are dominating the marketplace with the W810i and W850i being used by over a million users in the UK.
Jen Wu, analyst, M:Metrics, said:
There are plenty of musicphones which can play music, but a small handful of these, designed and marketed specifically for music playback, is accelerating awareness and interest in hybrid phone/music players. Predictably, music activity is considerably higher on music-focused phones: for example, 67 percent of Sony Ericsson W850i owners in the UK listen to sideloaded music on their phone, compared with only 28 percent of overall musicphone owners in the UK.
| Device Model | % of handsets used for sideloaded music |
Total UK owners |
| Sony Ericsson W850i | 67% | 373,713 |
| Sony Ericsson W810i | 59% | 709,433 |
| Sony Ericsson W800i | 52% | 404,116 |
| Nokia N80 | 51% | 229,700 |
| Nokia N73 | 48% | 304,104 |
| Sony Ericsson K800i | 46% | 879,901 |
| Sony Ericsson W300i | 45% | 195,975 |
| LG KG800 Chocolate | 42% | 370,412 |
| Samsung E900 | 38% | 594,912 |
| Sony Ericsson K750i | 35% | 792,681 |
Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2006. Survey of U.K. mobile subscribers. Data based on three month moving average for period ending 31 January, 2007, n= 15,225
