iPod phone hybrid divides experts

[MacBytes]

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Category: Opinion/Interviews
Link: iPod phone hybrid divides experts (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050909102904)

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[Blue Velvet]

It's ugly and I won't even give it a second thought when I shop for a new mobile within the next 6 months... I don't think it's going to be a hot-seller.

[Sun Baked]

It's ugly and I won't even give it a second thought when I shop for a new mobile within the next 6 months... I don't think it's going to be a hot-seller.Whether it's a bomb or not, having it the market is quite important to Apple since it is two things for Apple.

1. Allows another non Apple MP3 Player to make full use of FairPlay.

It's limited expansion, but it pokes people in the eye who claim the iPod's Fairplay and iTunes are closed with nobody but Apple playing in that sandbox.

[granex]

The real value of this phone and this approach will become clear when competitors bring out their non-iTunes phones. The strength of this phone is that you can load the music that you already own and/or pay $0.99 for new songs. I don't know why the "experts" aren't focusing on this. Jobs himself has said that the bandwidth limitations of the current cellular network drive the delivery costs per song directly to the phone to over $3. Don't compare this phone to the iPod, but to other phones in this class that will be coming out. Either the whole market segment will crash (which I doubt) or the iTunes phone will dominate the phone/music segment.

The most important part of this deal is not Motorolla, but Cingular. They blinked and let this non-network loading scheme onto the scene (you can - must actually - load songs directly from your computer to the phone rather than downloading songs over the cellular network). The carriers all want the download action so that they can charge you for the network service time. Now every other carrier is going to have to justify their outrageous download prices, not to mention the fact that you can't get songs from your CDs to you phone and you can't get downloaded songs off of your phone to your computer/iPod. It is amazing that Apple was able to be first to market with their approach so that everything else will be compared to it (and look weak).

Also, everyone is focusing on the fact that people are already paying $3 for stupid ringtones. AFAIK, no one has 100 ringtones on their phone. The reason there have been more ringtones sold than "MP3s" is because there are a lot more phones out there. This will change as more music comes to phones.

The only thing that really matters now is battery life. If the Cingular guy was not BSing (which seems very likely given the way he came across), then there might be sufficient battery life to make this work. If there is, then its a revolution. If there isn't, then long live the iPod.

What we are now waiting for is an Apple branded phone built upon the iPod nano approach. I think that they could capture the phone market in a big way - again as long as the battery is there to support it.

[nagromme]

It's just a toe in the water for Apple. Could be important some day.

[Lacero]

Is the ROKR a brand new design, or is it an old design with iTunes tacked on? I'm not familiar with today's cell phones since I still have one from 3 years ago.

[24C]

Is the ROKR a brand new design, or is it an old design with iTunes tacked on? I'm not familiar with today's cell phones since I still have one from 3 years ago.
AFAIK the stereo speakers were first seen in the Moto E398 (UK), and the shape reminds me of pictures of the E790 of a few months back...actually the iTunes ROKR is now a Moto ROKR E1 over here.
The only bit that is new to me is it has an iTunes client grafted into the Moto interface to handle teh music playing functionality.

I quite like the Sony Ericsson W800i, but unsure how easy it would interface with OSX. It has it's own dedicated software for Windows PC functionality, so presumably it's a closed system that fights against iTunes users. ;)