Apple/Motorola Announce iTunes Phone

[oober_freak]

What most people have over-looked here is that this phone is infact a modified motorola e398. Remember that music fone without video recording? I always wanted to buy it but couldn't just because of the lack of video recording.

People here talk of SE k750i and other phones. But did k750i sound as good as e398? NO.

Now that they have modified the e398 and have launched it as ROKR, i'll sureply buy it when it comes to India/Singapore.

I still can't understand why they intend to launch the phone in the world's fastest growing cell phone market so late... honestly i can not understand!

Apple's marketing policies are their weak point... mark my words... ROKR will SELL... and it isn't too expensive.. almost no one discussed the cost!

 

[Papercut]

MPEG4 encoder/decoder : and H.263 decoder video???

This is on the ROKR phone (as in John). The Moto guy was a little vague in a few spots and he mentioned other unnamed specifications and services. itunes video perhaps? Or maybe downloading capabilities that Cingular doesn't offer. It would seem this phone could have been smaller for all it is publicized to do.

itunes 5 has video on the search bar.

Yeah the Moto and Cingular guys were a bit sleazy. But cheers for the Cingular guy showin up.

 

[Ringu]

Meanwhile, here in Finland (home of Nokia) there actually are increasing rumors about Nokia siding with Apple. I saw a magazine article at work (can't remember which magazine, but the story was in Finnish) which seemed to predict a Nokia iTunes phone as a near certainty. It quoted a Nokia manager saying "Yes, I have already seen such a phone" referring to iTunes on a Nokia, as well as wondering why it took Motorola so long to implement the iTunes phone.

And yeah, the Motorola phone is butt ugly, though there's no guarantee of Nokia pulling it off any better (which is not to say they haven't made some quite good looking phones).

That's interesting. I hope it happens. Licensing iTunes to Nokia would be great, as well as an Apple designed-Nokia made joint phone. Nokia is far better than Moto IMO. Comparing the basic OS on both phones, and Nokia's easy of use is Apple-like.

The Rokr doesn't break any new ground for me. Lots of phones play music now and IMO they are better phones. It lacks the crucial cool-factor in it's design.

Now if they'd stuck iTunes in a Samsung slider phone - like a D500 and made it white, it would have been an easy job, and I'd bet a few more of us would be reaching for our credit cards now.

 

[mazurka]

Hehe hey awesome, first one to post ever! I have pretty high hopes for this phone, a lot of people thought the shuffle was a bad idea but then look what happened. I'm just curious to see how Apple will sell this on/at the store. Usually whenever a phone is sold, they refer you to the carrier site. Maybe they'll sell an unlocked version at the online store=). One can only dream.

Did I miss something here? Yes, it's an ugly phone, granted, but when Steve was using it on the webcast, did he not say it had 'pretty good stereo speakers'? Huh? And when he was taking that call, was he using a headset, or was he actually able to listen to the caller and reply to him without putting the phone to his ear? Now....if someone came up with a phone that could do THAT....

 

[Machead III]

iPod Nano looks like nothing short of a revolution i personal electronics, iTunes 5 is brilliant... this phone could well be the single worst product in Apples entire history, including the Pippin.

What a monumental supernova historical let down. Good thing we have all those other things to take our mind of these POS.

 

[no1]

i think apple phone should look something like this:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/images/nokia6170.gif

i hate this itunes phone.. it looks terrible.

 

[Ringu]

i think apple phone should look something like this:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/images/nokia6170.gif

i hate this itunes phone.. it looks terrible.

Agreed. That Nokia already looks better than the Rokr - Nokia have some much nicer phones coming out in this last quarter - a few new slider phones that look cool.

I'd have liked the D500 in white. The D500 was released a year ago and it's still a better phone than the Rokr base.

 

[Passante]

what's worst than the phone

The studpid "make me dance" web page. What the bleep is that?

 

[DJY]

bugger!
Terrible first phone!
Whilst we seem to know that over coming months more phones will be released with iTunes on them from Moto...

this one isn't a good first start I don't think!

I wonder if the GUI is still the same but they have added iTunes?
With an updated GUI then I might think about the next phone or SLVR / RAZR!

sigh at this stage I'm looking at the W800i most likely.
I've read about the shocking software needed though it sounds like to load songs... does this mean you can't just drag song in via bluetooth or USB via Mac OS X? If so that is a shame!!!

 

[sjo]

That's interesting. I hope it happens. Licensing iTunes to Nokia would be great, as well as an Apple designed-Nokia made joint phone. Nokia is far better than Moto IMO. Comparing the basic OS on both phones, and Nokia's easy of use is Apple-like.

They don't need to license itunes to Nokia, the most sensible thing they could do (that is if they really want to enter the mobile phone market) is to build a symbian itunes. There's already tens of millions of mobiles that would download the software and start using it. They could bypass the carriers since those weren't needed to distribute the phone.

The software would be ready in few months (half a year at the most) while the motorola phone has taken them almost two years to develope!

Well, Apples loss if they won't, within a year there will be more Nokia and Sony mobile phone/music player combos sold than iPods...

 

[weg]

'tis true. Samsung, Nokia, Sony...any of those would have been nice.

I hope Apple do their own phone.

*rotfl* I doubt that Sony would have been interested...

 

[Ringu]

*rotfl* I doubt that Sony would have been interested...

Yeah I know. I just meant that Sony make better phones than Moto, and iTunes deserved a better platform than the Rokr.

I agree with Sjo, with so many phones on the market that play music, Apple has a big challenge to go for a dominant market share with Moto.

 

[0098386]

Never owned a Nokia then... 😉

urgh Nokia's are fowl. they're the scally phone. cheap mass produced Tesco no frills beans.

IMO 🙂

 

[kretzy]

It's great that iTunes is on the phone but it really deserves a better platform. I really don't like Motorola phones in general. My dad has a v3 razor and I find the interface and menus hideous and confusing. The design of this phone isn't particularly atractive either. What apple need to do is develop their own phone (ditch Motorola!), now that would be cool!

 

[AlBDamned]

sigh at this stage I'm looking at the W800i most likely.
I've read about the shocking software needed though it sounds like to load songs... does this mean you can't just drag song in via bluetooth or USB via Mac OS X? If so that is a shame!!!

W800i is miles better than the ROKR phone and it is just a case of drag and drop with OS X.

With an included 540MB and the usual Sony stuff, the W800i beats the ROKR phone in every way – except for iTunes, of course. Can't believe Steve messed up when he was called on stage. He didn't seem to impressed with it overall either. Damp. Squib.

 

[Zaha]

i think apple phone should look something like this:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/images/nokia6170.gif

i hate this itunes phone.. it looks terrible.

Have you seen this phone with your own eyes? In Nokia ads it looks cool, in reality... I was much less impressed.

 

[law guy]

Disclosure: it's not a Mac and I like high quality audio, so I'm predisposed not to care a bit about this - BUT

I have to vote with those on the asthetics of this phone - wow, that's ugly. Reminds me of the phone equivilent of a clunky Dell "workstation" notebook.

All-in-one, I suppose but my guess is that a razr and a shuffle or nano will still me a more alluring option for those who want to carry a little of bit of tech sexy with them.

 

[pubwvj]

What is really exciting about the Nano and the Rokr is that it is a very short distance from these devices to a tiny Apple handheld computer. I would dearly love to see a true MacOS X handheld to replace my Handspring Deluxe. It should have a screen that covers the entire front of the device, be waterproof, shock proof (for the clumsy who drop them), not break if sat on (keep it out of your back pocket though!), etc to make it real world tough.

Ideally it would also run PalmOS in emulation as there is already a lot of low processor demand software for handhelds out there for the Palm. Palms failing and Apple should just buy them, fold them into the MacOS.

They could bring out an Apple PDA/MP3/VoiceRecorder/Camera/CellPhone/WiFiPhone/GPS/etc the size of the iPod nano. That would be a real killer product.

 

[sishaw]

What is really exciting about the Nano and the Rokr is that it is a very short distance from these devices to a tiny Apple handheld computer.

Um...not really. If my Treo could play iTunes, it would be closer (in that it is already a tiny handheld computer). Apple didn't design the phone, it's just a phone with iTunes, just like my Treo can play MP3s through pocket tunes--and run executable software.

Which begs the next question: instead of making such a big deal about an ordinary phone, why doesn't Apple just license iTunes for any phone that can play music and meets certain minimal design specs? What was the particular advantage in working with Motorola here?

I don't get it.

 

[wdlove]

My wife is unhappy about the announcement. She decreased her minutes wit Verizon in June, unknown to her they extended her contract to 2007.
She needs a new phone, wonders why Steve only went with Cingular.

 

[AoWolf]

Um...not really. If my Treo could play iTunes, it would be closer (in that it is already a tiny handheld computer). Apple didn't design the phone, it's just a phone with iTunes, just like my Treo can play MP3s through pocket tunes--and run executable software.

Which begs the next question: instead of making such a big deal about an ordinary phone, why doesn't Apple just license iTunes for any phone that can play music and meets certain minimal design specs? What was the particular advantage in working with Motorola here?

I don't get it.

I think thats coming.

To me though I don't like mixing the two devices for me a phone is a tool that I treat ruffly. An iPod is a much finer device that I take better care of. To me phones have always seemed temporary and disposable almost.

 

[AoWolf]

My wife is unhappy about the announcement. She decreased her minutes wit Verizon in June, unknown to her they extended her contract to 2007.
She needs a new phone, wonders why Steve only went with Cingular.

Yeah I wonder if they will only make it for GSM networks...

 

[BOOMBA]

Bluetooth?

It says on Cingular's site
"Bluetooth Capable for voice calls"

does this mean you cannot use bluetooth for moving photos and files back and forth from the computer anymore?

I hate Verizon's phones which do just that.

 

[sishaw]

Not getting phone

I think thats coming.

To me though I don't like mixing the two devices for me a phone is a tool that I treat ruffly. An iPod is a much finer device that I take better care of. To me phones have always seemed temporary and disposable almost.

I hope you're right--I would add iTunes to my Treo in a NY minute if it were available and priced reasonably. And I suspect a lot of other people would do as well for their phones. Not so much for music--I agree with you that an iPod is a fine music device and I doubt a phone would sound as good or be as easily usable--as for things like audiobooks and podcasts.

I think this is one case where the market might really be in the software, Apple's cultural bias towards nicely-designed hardware with integrated software notwithstanding.

 

[Voonplatz]

this phone could well be the single worst product in Apples entire history

This phone is not Apple's product. The MotoROKR phone is a product by Motorola. Do you see an Apple logo anywhere on the phone? No. Apple's product is iTunes. Now go get yourself a juice box and play nice with the other boys and girls.