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.The iTunes-compatible phone in many ways mimics the iPod, according to a first-hand PC Magazine report.
\"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.