Prince Mclean![](\"https://photos2.insidercdn.com/images/itunesphone.jpg\")
During a presentation Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show, a Motorola executive previewed the upcoming mobile phone that the company is jointly developing with Apple Computer.
"It syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store like an iPod does, and incorporates the iPod interface for navigating and playing digital music," said Ron Garriques, a Motorola executive vice president.
Garriques also revealed that the phone is the first of many Motorola devices that will support iTunes this year. However, he did not provide product specs or say when the phone would be available.
Last month, Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of applications, said the company was 'definitely on schedule' to make a mobile phone related announcement within the first half of 2005.
"What we've talked about is a something that is valuable for the mass market," Cue said. "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."
No images of the phone have yet to surface in a public forum, but prototype units have reportedly been spotted with bluetooth streaming capabilities and 1GB of flash memory-based storage.
Like the iPod, the iTunes-compatible phone will play tracks purchased from Apple's iTunes music download service.
A purported photo of the Moto iTunes phone,
posted to the neowin.net forums.
Update: According to sources, the phone shown above and elsewhere on the internet is not the rumored Apple-Motorola cell phone, but rather a development phone used for demonstrating the embedded version of iTunes that will be included with the Apple-Moto phone.
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32 Comments
Dang, Motorola broke their NDA. Sue 'em!
Sounds interesting yet inevitable. I wonder how terrible the battery life will be on these things.
In truth, I just don't get it. Isn't my iPod for listening to music while I am out and about? What is the purpose of having an iTunes integrated phone? At the end of the day, I don't know that I would be interested in a device that is basically a cell phone that can sync with iTunes. I might be more interested in an iPod that can make phone calls. Know what I mean? Anyone have any thoughts?
Well I guess this follows the old Apple-way-of-doing-things:
- When technology lets it become what it should have been from the start.
Just like the iPod Photo would be a killer
app if it could store photos not having to
go through a computer (software update?),
the Moto-Apple phone will be a killer when
3G mobile networks lets you buy the songs
when you are mobile...
This is possible in Europe, but the phone
will probably not get to Europe in about
a year anyway (like the iPod/iTMS didn't).
But Apple doesn't wait for that to happen...
I think that the strategy is to make
it a killer in its third version or something
(and that's when we will see an Apple branded phone).
When technology lets it become what it should have been
from the start.
"Well I guess this follows the old Apple-way-of-doing-things:
- When technology lets it become what it should have been from the start"
Sometimes technology needs to mature. If you try to create something with "everything now" it usually ends up like something created by Microsoft - a big messy piece of crap that has all the bells and whistles and very user unfriendly.
Taking baby steps is the best way to determine what should come next. Let the market decide which direction to go rather than trying to force everyone to go a certain way.
Apple did the same thing with the iPod ... at first it was just an MP3 player... then later as many people requested and they figured out an elegant way to accomplish it, they added the ability to synch with certain types of data on your computer... then later, added a color screen to display photos... etc... next, possibly some form of wireless technology; cellular, satellite, or WiFi.
Apple has become pretty good about knowing the right time to enter a market and what that market really wants/needs.
In truth, I just don't get it. Isn't my iPod for listening to music while I am out and about? What is the purpose of having an iTunes integrated phone? At the end of the day, I don't know that I would be interested in a device that is basically a cell phone that can sync with iTunes. I might be more interested in an iPod that can make phone calls. Know what I mean? Anyone have any thoughts?
Are you kidding, then you're just living in your "All anyone needs is an iPod, nothing else!" world. This would be great! Right now, I want to go out for a walk, I start packing up my crap, which includes iPod and cell phone (of course, with the iPod on, and crappy cell phone vibrate mode, I never hear the phone ring). Just more stuff weighing you down, esp. if you're wearing shorts and a t-shirt ("aaaiiiiggghhh! LouZer's wearing shorts again! Run for your lives!"). And esp. if you know what you want to listen to (for me, its either audiobooks or radio broadcasts), then this would work out well.
You know, just take the argument for a flash-based player (size, weight), and that's what you got here.