In the past year, more Americans have become used to thinking of their cellphones as entertainment devices at a soaring pace, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.

Deloitte's first edition of the survey (which was performed just 8 months earlier) showed that 24 percent of U.S. consumers used their cellphones as entertainment devices. Since then, a follow up survey shows that entertainment usage on cellphones jumped 50 percent, bringing the total of U.S. consumers who use their cellphones as entertainment devices to 36 percent.

The findings of the survey of 2,081 Americans, conducted in late October, were provided to The Hollywood Reporter before their official release next month.

Roughly 62 percent of "millennials" (13-to-24-years-old) are using their cellphones as entertainment devices - that's up from 46 percent in the previous study conducted in late February. And among Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number grew to 47 percent - up drastically from 29 percent in the earlier survey.

That's a pretty rapid adoption rate. And only in eight months. Now imagine how that usage will grow in the next two years?

Note to Sirius and XM: If you want to ride this wave - stop thinking of your mobile services as a revenue generators, and start thinking of them as a lead generators. The key to adoption, is exposure.

[Reuters]

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting writeup on how automakers are using next month's Consumer Electronis Show as a launchpad to showcase their latest in-vehicle technologies.

And rightly so. Next year, sales for the booming in-car electronics market are expected to top $12 billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) - that's double the level from five years ago.

"Detroit is going to Las Vegas," said CEA president Gary Shapiro. "All the excitement in the home is moving to the car."

Demand is consumer driven, who increasingly want to bridge the gap between their digital lifestyles and the dashboard. And consumers are more likely to spend $600 for in-vehicle gizmos if they're already spending $30,000 on a car.

"Two years ago, CES wasn't even on our radar screen," said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Mark Schirmer. "Consumer electronics have become important because it is what people talk about, and it is part of what they ask about when they are buying a car."

The proof is in the pudding. Ford models equipped with SYNC are selling twice as fast as those without, according to WSJ.

Ford SYNC, which made its debut at last year's CES, will be highlighted at the upcoming show alongside the newly announced navigation system: Sirius Travel Link. Sirius will again be showing off its Sirius Backseat TV service, though no longer under the "prototype" status since it hit the market earlier this year. And while there's nothing official yet from XM, I think we can assume that the company will take the wraps off some new technologies at the show as well.

This year's CES includes a focus on the latest safety equipment, entertainment systems and the integration of digital devices (mobile phones, digital-music players and TVs) with the vehicle. WiMax and other means of internet connectivity will be shown... all spearheaded with a keynote by General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner

Can't wait.

[Wall Street Journal]
Photo credit: Wired

Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker, yesterday announced a deal with Universal Music Group that will give customers buying select mobile devices unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year - and lets them keep the music afterwards.

Nokia is hoping that the other Big Three music labels will soon be on board.

Starting in the second half of 2008, the program (called "Comes With Music") lets folks who buy a qualifying phone to have unlimited access to Universal's entire artist catalog for a year. Once the year is over, you can keep all that music without it disappearing when the subscription is over.

The one downside (and it's a big one) is that the tracks are protected with Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, according to Ars Technica. If you want to burn the music to a CD, you need to pay. Hopefully Nokia and/or Universal will learn the err of their ways and remove the DRM caveat, because that would be the largest stumbling stone preventing this from taking off.

Of course, Nokia isn't disclosing which phones/devices need apply, and they didn't say what the terms of the deal were. But Universal's digital operations chief, Rob Wells, told Reuters in an interview: "Unless there was enough money for the world's biggest record company we would not have agreed to the deal."

DRM or not, it's still a big deal. And one that has the potential to turn both the mobile audio, as well as the unlimited music subscription services, on their collective heads. Nokia moves a lot of phones, and if they make the "Comes With Music" service available on a large number of handsets, that means there's now instant access to millions of songs in a lot of people's pockets.

Why should Satellite Radio care? Because Nokia obviously is seeing a value in providing music on mobile devices, and is pushing their leadership position hard to make sure they have a foothold.

Just a couple days ago, Nokia unveiled Nokia Internet Radio (pictured at right), a free downloadable application that will also be embedded in upcoming Nokia S60 3rd edition devices. It's essentially a directory, and an interface, of internet radio stations accessible on your Nokia phone.

Browse by station name, genre, country or language. Nokia Internet Radio also updates the top ten most popular internet radio stations hourly in its own special directory. The service also lets you save a list of "Favorites" - essentially presets of your top station - so they're accessible right away. And it's free.

The NAB says that there is no other "Nationwide Multichannel Mobile Audio Service" out there to compete with Sirius or XM.

I beg to differ.