Apple and Motorola on track to intro iTunes-ready phone
An Apple VP has confirmed that the first half of 2005 will give way to an iTunes-ready cellphone that will be co-developed by Motorola.
"We've said we have something coming on this in the first half of 2005 and we're definitely on schedule for that. Hopefully you'll be able to see more about it soon," says Eddy Cue, vice president in charge of applications at Apple. "What we've talked about is a something that is valuable for the mass market," Cue added. "It has to be a phone in the middle-tier of the market, not a $500-tier phone. It has to be very seamless to use. And we're very happy with the results."
Cue reportedly declined to say whether Jobs would introduce the phone at next month's Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Earlier this Summer, Motorola and Apple announced plans to enable music lovers to transfer their favorite songs from the iTunes jukebox on their PC or Mac, including songs from the iTunes Music Store, to Motorolaâs next-generation "always with you" mobile handsets, via a USB or Bluetooth connection.
At the time, Apple stated that it would create a new iTunes mobile music player, which Motorola will make the standard music application on all their mass-market music phones, expected to be available in the first half of 2005.
73 Comments
This could be a very big release, but would take time to gather steam in the market because too many mobile users are under existing contracts. That situation leads to the potential of the overseas market growing faster than the US market as the phone would probably be GSM (the world standard, except for the US) and users could simply switch their GSM card to the new phone. I would probably get one as I have to travel overseas and already have GSM cards for 2 countries.
ATT/Cingular run GSM. It would be a very popular phone for those customers (like myself).
yay i can finally get a good phone! (i was waiting for anything worthwhile, apple or non-apple)
Just a guess: Apple won't release a flash-based iPod, but they will provide a phone with flash-based iTunes playback.
Just a guess: Apple won't release a flash-based iPod, but they will provide a phone with flash-based iTunes playback.
That's what my fumbled words were trying to guess in the thread about Apple buying flash.