By Dawn C. Chmielewski

Mercury News

Steve Jobs has got your number.

In a move to make music truly mobile, the Apple Computer chief executive is expected to unveil the aptly named Motorola Rokr cell phone Wednesday in San Francisco. The phone will play songs people already own, transferred directly from the iTunes music collection on their computers.

Apple`s marriage of the popular iPod with a gadget we carry everywhere is a bid to consolidate its dominance of the digital music market. Cingular Wireless will offer the Rokr as other cell phone companies prepare to launch high-speed networks to allow people to download songs to their phones. No pods required.

The Rokr, we hasten to add, is not the only cellular phone that plays MP3 music files. There are no fewer than 70 music phones on the market. But we challenge you to name one.

See what we mean?

Apple is counting on its cachet to help it crack the potentially huge cell phone music market. If it succeeds, Apple will be poised to sell full-length song downloads, once high-speed wireless networks become broadly available in 2006.

The outcome will depend on a number of factors, such as the price of the Motorola Rokr phone and people`s interest in hearing the full-length version of songs like Mariah Carey`s ``We Belong Together`` on their phone rather than just the 15-second ring tone.

And it remains to be seen whether the Motorola Rokr will exude the same modernist, minimalist cool that made Apple`s iPod and iMac such tech fashion icons.

Music industry veterans, cell phone company executives and analysts say musical phones are inevitable -- even if the idea might strike some as odd. Indeed, Jupiter Research predicts the number of music-playing phones will surpass the number of digital music players in the next five years, growing from 3 million this year to 77 million by 2010.

``Music is inherently mobile and something you enjoy on the go,`` said Rio Caraeff, general manager of Universal Mobile Music, a division of Universal Music Group. ``It`s a natural growth avenue for the music business.``

Jupiter Research Vice President Michael Gartenberg expects a music phone would co-exist with the iPod, not replace it. The iTunes phone might be the music player you take to the gym when you want to bring just one gadget that holds a limited number of songs. Unconfirmed reports claim the Rokr will come with a 128-megabyte Sandisk TransFlash memory card that would hold about 30 songs. The iPod, with its capacity to hold as many as 15,000 songs, is the obvious choice when boarding a plane for a six-hour cross-country flight.

As evidence the iPod and Rokr can thrive side by side, Gartenberg points to the symbiotic relationship between digital cameras. Instead of cannibalizing sales, the mobile phones equipped with tiny cameras actually fueled digital camera purchases because consumers said it introduced them to digital picture-taking, according to a study released last week by research firm IDC.

If the mobile music revolution is inevitable, why did it take Apple and Motorola so long to get here?

Apple Computer and Motorola announced plans in July 2004 to jointly develop a phone that would let music lovers transfer their favorite songs from the iTunes jukebox on their PC or Mac to a next-generation phone.

But the giant cellular operators balked because they want consumers to pay them a premium for the music they put on their phones, according to sources who requested anonymity because of ongoing discussions with the carriers. Cell phone carriers already charge as much as $3 for ring tones, those 15-second snippets of songs that play whenever someone calls.

The carriers, in short, viewed Apple as a competitor -- not a partner, said Charles Golvin, an analyst for Forrester Research in Los Angeles. He said the carriers believe they can use their own cellular networks to displace Apple as the leader in digital music downloads.

Verizon; Sprint Nextel

Indeed, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel plan to offer their own music download services by the end of the year, as they roll out high-speed wireless networks nationwide.

Sprint`s director of entertainment, Nancy Beaton, said downloads will augment a growing array of music services, from ring tones to downloadable concert information to commercial-free music streams from Music Choice, and soon, Sirius Satellite Radio.

``The key for us is taking advantage of the instant and immediate access of the phone,`` Beaton said. ``It`s the whole premise that wireless phones are based on.``

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless launched its high-speed network last week in the Bay Area that can deliver videos, music and ring tones to cell phones, said Rich Garwood, regional president for Northern California.

The key to enticing wireless downloads is that the song not be locked in isolation on the cell phone. Another copy must be delivered to the computer, where people can burn a CD or create music mixes. Neither Verizon nor Sprint would discuss future plans, although Sprint notes it already provides this feature with digital photos.

``When people have downtime they love playing with their mobile phones. So instead of playing a game of Tetris or buying their next ring tone, browsing for music and downloading a full track -- it`s a natural and good thing,`` said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG Music.

Nonetheless, there are obstacles to offering wireless song downloads. People typically browse for music before they buy -- whether that means roaming the aisles of a CD store, or perusing an online catalog. The mobile phone, with its tiny screen and numeric keypad, isn`t ideally suited to shopping for songs.

``Generally speaking, browsing on your mobile phone is a lousy experience,`` said Golvin.

The cell phone carriers, because of the economics of delivering bits across their wireless networks, want to charge a premium. And while people will pay triple the price of a 99-cent iTunes track for a ring tone to personalize their mobile phone, it`s unclear how much they`ll pay for a full-song download.

``By and large, consumers are going to opt for doing it on their PC, because that`s the place where they want to manage their music, keep their library,`` said Golvin.

Partnership with Cingular

That`s the bet Apple is placing -- along with Cingular Wireless, which is expected to be the first carrier to offer Motorola`s Rokr phone.

Mark Nagel, Cingular`s director of entertainment services, won`t discuss specific partnerships. But he said Cingular plans to embrace the way people download and organize their digital music collections now -- on the computer -- in hopes that it will lead to other types of wireless entertainment purchases later.

``One of the things that`s important for the industry to recognize is how people buy and store and use their music today,`` Nagel said. ``A lot of it has to do with taking the music you own and making it portable. If you`re not cautious about how you approach an existing user behavior, you could stand to alienate people.``

Even before Apple`s iTunes makes its formal announcement, competitors like Microsoft and Napster were busily issuing press releases to counter Wednesday`s Apple media blitzkrieg.

``We want to remind everybody, before Apple takes credit for inventing the wheel again, there are a lot of handsets out there that support digital music,`` said William Pence, chief technical officer for the Napster music service.