iTunes on Motorola Phones

[MacRumors]

Apple announced today that Motorola and Apple are partnering to bring iTunes Music Player to next-generation Motorola phones.

Motorola, Inc. and Apple today announced they are partnering to enable millions of music lovers to transfer their favorite songs from the iTunes jukebox on their PC or Mac, including songs from the iTunes Music Store, to Motorola’s next-generation “always with you” mobile handsets, via a USB or Bluetooth connection. Apple will 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 next year. *

This represents the first officially supported use of Protected AAC iTunes on 3rd party hardware.

[bryantm3]

that seems useful for all the people that don't have the money to buy an iPod, but still want to listen to music.

[musicpyrite]

I wonder how this will effect iPod sales.....

[dizastor]

I guess this means no more Apple branded cell phone rumors.

[arnette]

woah, cool.

sounds like there will be come cool ringtones in the future. Too bad I've been a recently converted Nokia-man. Though my V300 Motorola wasn't all that bad.

[davefan6435]

i hope you can use the songs as ring tones

[themacrobaye]

YES! This is the kind of news we love to hear! Apple teaming up with other companies (esp one like Motorola (esp after knocking them off for IBM)) to make next generation software available for next generation phones.

You know what this also means?

The excellent possibilty of an iPod PDA or a Newton, or something of that sort... if Apple developes iTunes for a cell phone, imagine what they could do with it for their own (future) products!

iPhone, welcome to planet Jobs.

[ifjake]

now to see if my wireless provider can use motorola.

[michaelrjohnson]

So.... after you transfer them, what can you do with them?

[bathysphere]

i wonder if a current phone like the e398 would be able to download use the itunes application, through a firmware upgrade or just download the app.

[idkew]

i also agree this is a big hint there will be NO apple iPhone.

for what its worth arn, the frame for this article rendered incorrectly in firefox 0.8:

[nuckinfutz]

Originally Posted by greenmonsterman

I guess this means no more Apple branded cell phone rumors.

No my friend. On the contrary this step brings us even closer to the the possibility of an Apple Phone. This means Apple has squeezed the Quicktime frameworks down to a size that mobile phones can handle.

This is surely a feature of Quicktime 7. We'll know more soon enough but this is very encouraging news. This portends the potential for set top boxes with iTunes support or PDAs. This is step one in what is going to be hopefully an avalance of iTunes licensees.

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by greenmonsterman

I guess this means no more Apple branded cell phone rumors.

I'll be curious to see how this develops. I'm guessing it will start as a basic phone that holds a 256MG flash card -- good enough for 50-60 songs. You could have an "iPhone" playlist on your iTunes. Motorola could grow it later as the cost of flash cards continues to come down.

[gensor]

next 12 months trying to figure out how Motorola phone users can downloand Real songs to the iTunes/Apple player on the Motorola phone. Copy, Copy, Copy. We plan to change our name to "RealCopy".

[Stella]

I'm very surprised Nokia didn't partner... since they are by far number 1.

Hope iTunes comes to Symbian in the near future... port to Series x0 and UIQ and you'll get access to a lot of phones automatically.

HOWEVER... cell phones aren't ideal for playing music - their battery life is way too short.. at the moment.

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Apple announced today that Motorola and Apple are partnering to bring iTunes Music Player to next-generation Motorola phones.



This represents the first officially supported use of Protected AAC iTunes on 3rd party hardware.

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by idkew

i also agree this is a big hint there will be NO apple iPhone.

for what its worth arn, the frame for this article rendered incorrectly in firefox 0.8:

I don't know why this couldn't BE the iPhone. Co-branding shouldn't be considered a deal-breaker; I mean, if it wasn't co-branded, it would still be made by Qualcomm or Erikson or some other mobile manufacturer.

Then again, one could read the fact that this announcement came from Motorola's web site as an indication that it won't be the last deal with a phone manufacturer. Maybe the iPhone is just further down the road.

[leftbanke7]

And you guys said that Apple had dropped Motorola for good.

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by gensor

next 12 months trying to figure out how Motorola phone users can downloand Real songs to the iTunes/Apple player on the Motorola phone. Copy, Copy, Copy. We plan to change our name to "RealCopy".

Ladies and gentlemen, Buckwheat is dead. More later.

[Thom_Edwards]

this is better than great! i don't think it means an apple iphone, but it does mean apple is extending its reach. kind of like java is now. there is no such thing as a sun pda, but there sure are plenty of java apps. or like folger's teaming up with black & decker making that one-cup coffee maker. neither company is going too far out of their niche, but instead collaborating to make the Next Big Thing. (ok, that is probably the worst metaphor ever, but i just saw one on tv and i might want one...)

apple makes great software, and motorola makes really small electronics. i say bring it, and keep it coming

[hokka]

I wonder if iTunes would work with this sexy phone - to be released tomorrow and be available to buy in Sept. If so, I'm getting one!

[hokka]

"It won’t be officially announced until tomorrow, but we’re very impressed that Motorola was able to keep their new razorthin V3 cameraphone a secret for this long, since this is one of those phones that you just can’t help blabbing about. It’s a mere 14mm thick, with a casing made mostly of titanium and pretty much everything else you hope for in a handset this thin, like a built-in digital camera, Bluetooth, a 4,096 color external LCD, and a 262,000 color main LCD. Due out in September with an expected price somewhere around $700 US."

Blurb from Engadget

[jerk]

Originally Posted by nuckinfutz

No my friend. On the contrary this step brings us even closer to the the possibility of an Apple Phone. This means Apple has squeezed the Quicktime frameworks down to a size that mobile phones can handle.

This is surely a feature of Quicktime 7. We'll know more soon enough but this is very encouraging news. This portends the potential for set top boxes with iTunes support or PDAs. This is step one in what is going to be hopefully an avalance of iTunes licensees.

It is surely also a feature of Mac OS, or Apple if you like, and I am quite sure they háven't squeezed the entire company with Jobs and all in there.

FYI:
You can make a decoder that is entirely independant of quicktime, and that is probably what they have done. I can't even guess why you think they have ported quicktime to the phone. They already have MPEG4 in there, that is probably as close to quicktime as you will ever get with it.

I don't get the big deal here, many new phones can play MP3.

[Lancetx]

This just goes to prove that Apple is willing to work with worthy partners when it comes to their music strategy. Obviously HP, BMW, Motorola and AOL fall into that category, while chumps like Real Networks do not...

[ifjake]

i didn't think of this earlier. i was under the impression that Apple's previous plan for the music store was as a tool for encouraging iPod sales. now it seems like they're letting it stand more on its own. i was thinking previously that it would be great if apple made a PDA version of iTunes, but i thought they wouldn't as it would probably have a negative impact on iPod sales. now this just confuses me.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by idkew

i also agree this is a big hint there will be NO apple iPhone.

for what its worth arn, the frame for this article rendered incorrectly in firefox 0.8:

i use firefox 0.8 and it didn't **** up for me