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Verizon yesterday announced a digital music player called Chocolate, which uses a cellphone made by LG to play songs downloaded over Verizon’s wireless network.
With its circular scroll pad, the device looks like Apple’s iPod, adding another player to an increasingly crowded market. Microsoft announced July 21 it would soon release a digital music player called “Zune.”
Verizon’s Chocolate will probably differ from both products in that it uses wireless links both to download and to play music, supporting a Bluetooth-enabled headset. The device also doubles as a cellphone, with 3G features like games, music videos, television clips, GPS navigation and a camera.
The device has comparable storage to Apple’s 1GB shuffle or 2GB nano iPods. With its expandable memory slot, the Chocolate could store up to 1,000 songs on a 2GB microSD memory card.
Verizon, of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, is planning to release more details at a press conference later today. Early details are posted on the company’s website.
“While this may not be the first product of its kind, the idea of blending a phone and a music player makes sense. It looks sort of like a thick iPod with a phone, stores 1,000 songs and has a cool name, Chocolate. This product should be hottest among young adults,” said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications industry analyst.
Consumer electronics makers have been talking about convergence for years, as they launch products that combine the features of PDAs, mobile phones, video game players and cameras. Since many users carry several of those devices at once, Verizon’s Chocolate could be popular merely by reducing their load.
“We carry too many devices, and if a manufacturer can do a good job of blending multiple devices into one, it should be popular,” Kagan said.
— Ben Ames
Yoshi’s take: Oh, you young people and your fancy product names.
11:17 AM 
Mark Hiratsuka •
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