Curious juxtaposition of music-enabled cellphone stories over the last few days.

Consumer tech guru Walt Mossberg’s Wall Street Journal column today gives a "nice try but…" to Samsung’s new UpStage phone being rolled out on Sprint. Seems the device has terrible battery life, synch issues and poor navigation — even though it’s better LG’s popular Chocolate music phone, sold to Verizon customers.

Meanwhile, an NPD report finds that  music-enabled cellphone sales accounted for 32% of all cellphone sales in the fourth quarter, vs. 18% in the second quarter.

Which begs the question: does anyone use these cellphones to listen to music? Or are cellphone makers simply making a lot of music-enabled cellphone flops? I’d be curious to read the latest research.

Hopefully, Apple will do a better job making a cellphone with the iPhone than cellphone makers have done making music players.

See Also

• ZDNet News: Mobile Phone Sales Ring In Strong
• WSJ: (Subscription Required): Latest Music Phone Marred by Big Flaws

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