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Move Over Moto. No Way Nokia. Apple? Laughable. LG and Samsung Have Them All Beat

A new study from Parks Associates says that LG and Samsung lead the U.S. market for advanced entertainment features. You know, the stuff that the iPhone is supposed to be good at, like video, music and games. Interesting that both firms are from South Korea.

The consumer report, Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services, polled 2,000 Internet users 13 and older and found that more owners of LG and Samsung phones reported having advanced features. Mobile TV, for example, was present on 12% of LG phones and 11% of Samsung phones. Since Verizon's V CAST TV service uses just two models, one from LG and one from Samsung, this isn't surprising. Only 8% of Motorola phone owners reported having mobile TV capabilities and 0% (yes, a big fat zero) of Nokia owners have access to mobile TV. That same number applies to the iPhone (downloads from the iTunes Music Store that are stored on the iPhone don't count).

The news for Apple, Motorola, and Nokia is equally bleak with respect to the ability to purchase music directly from the handset. Only 6% of Nokia phones support purchase of music tracks in the U.S., compared with 22% and 20% of LG and Samsung phones, respectively. The iPhone doesn't support it at all.

Part of the reason Nokia performs so poorly in this report is because most of the handsets it sells in the U.S. are entry level phones stripped of advanced feature. Media-centric devices, such as the N93 or N95 certainly beat out many LG and Samsung models. But Nokia doesn't have a carrier distribution channel for them here. People interested in them need to buy them at full retail price through Internet retailers or at flagship stores. "Nokia needs to introduce more advanced phone models if it is to succeed in the high-end and midrange markets," Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, director of broadband and gaming, Parks Associates. "The challenge is even more acute now that the Apple iPhone is stirring up competition in the premium handset market."

Same goes for Motorola. Motorola's most advanced handsets, such as the "media monster" Z8, aren't available in the U.S. and are sold mostly in Europe and Asia.

LG and Samsung seem to have the equation all figured out. "South Korea leads the world in adoption of mobile entertainment features and services," said Cai. "Korean phone manufacturers have been able to take that experience and translate it into success in the American market, balancing good designs and advanced feature sets with reasonable costs."

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