Two reasons why the iPod phone may not succeed

But according to a survey of 3,000 people by Entertainment Media Research, there may not be as much mass market clamor for such a device as many think there will be. 

Twice as many of those surveyed prefer a mobile phone with an MP3 player rather than a built-in phone. 

"Even amongst current iPod owners there is a surprisingly strong preference towards the concept of handsets incorporating music players rather than viceversa with 40 per cent selecting the former compared to just 27 per cent preferring the latter", EMR said. "34 per cent claim to never want phone and player functionality on the same device."

My view? Those numbers are more predictive of mid-term trends. If an iPod phone comes to pass, the eager ones will line up at the queue first. In some cases, I think that will be literally line up- at retail stores waiting for the iPod phone to be unboxed.

But will the consumer excitement be sustainable?

Perhaps not, but for another reason then EMR indicated. 

How many budget-challenged cell phone customers will break their cell contracts to go with an iPod phone service? If the device is WiFi, that's an added expense as well.