Mobile phones are about to undergo a major evolution, thanks to a new thumb-nail sized hard drive that will allow audiophiles to store up to 3,000 digital tunes on their handset.

Dominant mobile-phone manufacturer Nokia has launched a new line of products, which will contain a 22-millimetre hard drive that has a four gigabyte capacity. The first of the line, the N91, will deliver about 12 hours of music. Some are even saying it could doom music players such as the iPod.

“We think this will be the year that the mobile phones start to be perceived as capable music players,” said Nokia vice president Jonas Geust.

Geust said that Nokia will deliver more than 40 million phones this year that have music-playing capability — up from 10 million in 2004.

Analysts say the mobile-phone industry moving further into the multi-media realm is just a natural progression, as storage becomes cheaper and consumer demand for richer content increases.

“Everybody is trying to capitalize on the success of the iPod and launch these all-in-one devices,” said Eddie Chan, an IDC Canada research analyst.

“It really boils down to the richness of the experience. It’s about the convergence of our professional and personal lives. You want to have your digital content with you whenever.”

Geust said the N91 features substantially upgraded audio performance and allows users to share playlists by multimedia message, e-mail or Bluetooth. Digital songs can also be bought and downloaded directly to the device without the use of a computer. The usual smorgasbord of PDA functions are also on board, in addition to a two megapixel camera for snapshots and video.

Nokia plans to launch the phone worldwide this fall — although it’s clearly aimed at the well-heeled and tech-savvy. The expected price (before airtime-plan discount) is expected to be about $1,000.

Although it is the first hard drive phone for Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are also in the fledgling market. South Korean tech giant Samsung was first to market last fall with a 1.5 GB hard-drive phone.

Apple Computer has owned the portable music market, selling 15 million iPods so far, but Microsoft honcho Bill Gates said yesterday in Frankfurt, Germany that Apple shouldn’t get too comfortable.

“I don’t think the success of the iPod can continue in the long term,” said Gates.

Motorola, however, is also working directly with Apple to produce an iTunes capable phone.

© The Vancouver Province 2005