The research company says the figure beats the iPod and other personal media players by 300 million units, making phone the most popular portable music device.

MultiMedia Intelligence says it expects music phone shipments to reach 941 million units in 2011 - accounting for half of all handsets sold.

The reports also states that the global mobile music content market ringtones, ringback tones, streaming audio and full-track downloads) will hit $6 billion this year.

MultiMedia Intelligence defines a music phone as a device with audio codec functionality (MP3, AAC, etc) and an expandable memory card slot.