Research firm M:Metrics has released data putting the UK at the top of the charts in terms of music functionality in handsets, with 40% of all UK handsets featuring music storage and playback, followed by Germany with 34% penetration, Italy with 32%, 29% for Spain and 23% for France. By comparison, as with many other media features, the US lags, with 17% of all handsets sold with music functionality.

The news is not all good for operators though. According to the M:Metrics data, customers with music phones favor loading music from a computer to the handset by a wide margin vs. over the air (OTA) downloads from operators or other services. for example, in the UK, the margin was 12% for synced or "sideloaded" music vs. just under 3% for OTA.

IN the as elsewhere, SonyEricsson leads the music phone pack, holding 6 of the top 10 places in terms of device ownership in this category. Nokia featured in two spots, with LG and Samsung in the remaining 2 of 10.

Find more great data over at Cellular-News.