If LG's Chocolate music phone is any indication of things to come, then its evident that the cell phone manufacturers and carriers are determined to make a serious dent into iPod's commanding marketshare. The Chocolate goes as far as to even look like an iPod with a sleek case and a circular navigation buttons.

LG's Sexy New Chocolate Slider

The Chocolate, a sexy slider with a large screen, is a vast improvement over other mediocre mobile offerings by featuring native support for MP3 files and the ability to multi-task during full-track playback. Other features include MP3 ringtone support (Ding Dong, the RingTone market is dead --ED.), Bluetooth stereo headphone compatibility, and an embedded stereo speaker.

Other music phone competitors include the BenQ-Siemens EF-51, Sony-Ericsson Walkman W900 and the LG Fusic

Verizon just announced that it is eliminating its $15 monthly subscription charge for VCast which should make the phone even more appealing to users, although the individual song download price is still $1.99. The device also s upports V Cast Video and 3D Games, and offers a 1.3 megapixel camera. A microSD slot enables a removable storage capacity of 2MB.

The Future: Motorola's crappy ROKR phone gave Apple about 12-18 months of breathing room. Even though the phone uses a version of the iTunes OS, it was such a poor device that customers were put off by the possibility of the convergence of their beloved iPod and a cell phone, at least for a while. Now with new mobiles, like LG's Chocolate, which has been a sales hit, the manufacturers are stepping up. In short order, the convergence of the cell phone and digital music player (music and video) will become a reality. If Apple is going to attempt to dominate this market, the time is now.

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