Get Ready to Call iTunes

[HomesliceJ]

iPhone, not anytime soon

I assumed when I read about the new Motorola RAZR V3 and how much marketing strength Motorola is going to put behind it that this IS the iTunes phone. It has Bluetooth and MPEG4 playback capability, and I could swear I read on Motorola's web site that it would play MP3; now I can't find that anywhere.

Is the iPhone going to be the RAZR?

The RAZR already came out, and it's not as cool as people thought it would have been. Even the Sony Ericsson T610 has more bluetooth functionalities. But apple will not start competing with Cell phone companies yet. I really don't think the cell phone is where Apple wants to take it's technology. iTunes on Motorola phones... sure. That's fine. But an Apple phone?

Apple will somehow integrate their iChat technology with something like the phone before they make a new product. the iPod was one of the greatest risky moves Apple ever made. Apple tried PDAs, Laser Printers, Scanners, and where are they now? Those creations are all gone. They've learned their lesson and when they made the iPod they were so sure it was going to be a hit. so an iPhone... they can't compete. I do see something like OS X on a phone though. So the phone will use a low end, low power consumption PowerPC processor, maybe a G4; that will run a Mobile OS X. With that, iLife will be integrated in the phone.

 

[clicknbet]

Have you guys seen the Motorola RAZR V3? I think Moto can build Apple one hell of a phone. Team that up with an Apple based OS and I will place my order the day it comes out.

 

[crachoar]

I do see something like OS X on a phone though. So the phone will use a low end, low power consumption PowerPC processor, maybe a G4; that will run a Mobile OS X. With that, iLife will be integrated in the phone.

...........

Right.

The G4 sure is known for running cool. Not to mention it's top-notch energy saving.

And yes, I'm sure Apple wants to release 'iLife' onto a cell phone interface....that'd be practical.

Ok, I'm done being a dick.

Personally, I think it's just going to be another way for apple to make money on this 'iTunes' cashcow before the well dries up (see: HP + iPod).

Terrible idea. Worthless.

What we really want, is an upgrade to the Newton. I imagine that the 'iPod' will eventually be that (perhaps years from now).

 

[dejo]

Please stop calling it iPhone. That name is just too darn corny for me.

Besides, it's not going to be an Apple-branded phone...

 

[sunilraman]

i totally agree

I wish it was Sony Ericsson instead of Motno, they work together better.

people, listen up

if you haven't already, just get yourself a sony ericsson T630 or check it out with a friend of yours that has one.

it is likely once you have experienced it you will enjoy 40-50% of what you think the iPhone will give you, and you will view motorola as rubbish and nokia as a company that has just lost the plot

okay, so i will only consider the iphone if it is
something like an iPod mini + sony ericsson T630

even better, when is apple going to come out with
iConsumerCool = iPod + phone + pda
????

when apple when ???

but i understand, the mobile phone market is such a bloody zoo at the moment yet apple has to act on ipod and itunes momentum...

...........

 

[gsdali]

Motorolla phone are far from my first choice. I've flitted between Sony Ericsson and Nokia Phone all my mobile life apart from one awful motorlla cancer brick in the mid 90s.

Unless this is something amazing it'll be a Nokia 9300 for me.

In Europe Apple/Moto are going to have trouble selling this phone. Phones are heavily subsidised by the networks; network which are pushing their own Content services, especially music and video services. I imagine that this is not going to be a 3G phone but it will have to be an EDGE/GPRS/GSM phone. This will also not make it popular with networks who are all pushing 3G phones right now, (except 02 here in the UK which is hanging back but already has it's own mp3 player and music download service).

Any downloads are going to incur vanilla data charges which are still quite high on non-business contract and especially in the popular pay as you go market. On my provider (Orange) £4 pm get's you £4 MB a month. Enough for IMAP email headers and a few emails or one song. Unlimited data costs £88.13 a month before you've even bought songs.

What any Mac phone should have though is a good email client, bluetooth (not a Motorola speciality, they still prefer USB cables), a camera that blows away the rest of the market (1 Megapixel is fairly normal now with 1.3 and 2 megapixel cameras also available), an interface taken from the iPod, (so the click wheel has to be there, this would be great on a phone), and the best .Mac and iSync integration.

If the phone is just a rebadged Motorola whatever then Apple will have failed and will have made their biggest mistake since Jobs returned to Apple. However I actually believe that this could be something good, providing motorola have been enablers rather than designers on this project. It may still bomb though without network acceptance, although hopefully moto/apple will be able to cut some revenue sharing deals to enable this.

We'll see though, and let's see if they can coax me away from buying that Nokia.

 

[AmigoMac]

One of the big deals will be ring tones! Right now they cost 2 or 3 bucks for a hacked up song that kinda sucks. Now we will be able to use any mp3 or iTMS purchased song as the ring and for $.99 for the whole song instead of the rip off that's goin on now.

You can do that already ... just a little iMovie/QT work
My ring tones come from my itunes library...
Hello, Hello! Hola!

 

[Abstract]

I think we can read a bit into this quote:

---
At the event, Jobs took pains to point out that the phone would not compete with Apple's popular iPod music player, but should viewed as an iPod accessory. "Wouldn't it be great if you could take a dozen of your favorite songs with you" on a cell phone, Jobs said at the time.
---

So, a dozen of your favorite songs won't compete with the iPod. What's a dozen songs? Twelve x 4MB? That means 48MB... Let's round that to 64MB? (isn't the iPod buffer 64MB of Flash already?)

This means that the product itself is an iPod accessory where you can move music from the iPod to a Moto phone with iTunes installed with no issues. It's not a new mobile phone, exactly. I mean, he has given you all the info you need ---- "viewed as an iPod accessory". Unless he means that this new mobile IS an iPod accessory, then no, there isn't going to be a new phone coming out designed by Apple, just an iPod accessory that lets you do something that I can't think of at the moment.

Anyway, how would they get the clickwheel to work on a phone?

And although my SE K700i rocks, Moto phones aren't that bad. BT sucks, but it sucks for the Mac the most, which is what most of us use, so what do you expect the response to be on a Mac board concerning Motorola mobile phones, right? My friend has a Moto e398, and it feels solid and takes much better pictures than my SE K700i (and all SE phones in general). The sound coming from it is also amazing.

Too bad about the BT and Mac compatibility issue, though. That, plus the horrid menu system.

 

[dobbin]

Listening to MP3s on a phone is nothing new. I was doing this about 4 years ago on my Siemens SL45. OK, I had to drag and drop files onto the memory card rather than having itunes syncing, but its hardly revolutionary is it!?

Buying songs over the phone would be a proper leap in technology, but how long would it take to download files unless you had a 3G phone? Is the 3G technology taking off in the US like it is almost doing over here?

What I'd really like is a small clip-on gadget to turn my ipod into a phone. It would be the size of something like an iTrip and could use the battery, screen, processing power of the ipod. Would be neat if it was really small, but I doubt this will be brought out anytime soon.

 

[macidiot]

why oh why motorola?

As much as I dig the idea of a cell from Apple, I'm going to have a seriously hard time buying into anything from Motorola. It better be God's gift to cell phones for me to get one. I swore I'd never buy a cell from Motorola again. I've gone through 8 of them (5 in the space of 6 months) and they haven't made a quality phone since the first few startacs.

Motorola has good design, terrible engineering. Nokia is pretty much the opposite. My Nokias, in my experience are well made but utterly boring and feature-poor. Motorolas are junk. Sony seems to be somewhere in between.

couple of other things...

why is engadget scooping macrumors on mac rumors?? Lately they seem to be a lot more active in reporting Apple news.

And is anyone else really tired of the i-anything moniker? If I remember correctly, "i" was added to everything to give internet cache. Its so 1997/amazon is going to $400/food processing company watches its stock double in one day after it announces it is entering the web portal business(true story)/I'm 20 with no work experience at all but I just got 50 million in vc for my iBusinessPlan to sell iJunk on the internet. I get that the iMac and iPod are the biggest branded items Apple makes, but do they need to keep beating it to death? Hope they call it the ePhone, the ApplePhone, PowerPhone, G5phone, QuadraPhone, DuoPhone, anything but iPhone.

Personally I like QuadraPhone or PowerPhone. Or maybe DuoCell

 

[Loge]

Interesting to see how the mobile networks react, given that the approach here makes more use of the computer as the hub and improved synchronization that removes much of the need to use their expensive network services. We've seen already networks crippling BT file transfer and use of non-purchased mp3 files as ringtones.

I think the bundling of handsets and contracts will probably end in the next few years as the interests of the phone makers and mobile networks diverge.

 

[evolu]

Basically you make a device that can connect to any available wifi connection, in which case you can ichat anyone for free. use the integrated camera for video chat.

Also, the iTunes in the phone has you logged in under your .Mac name, and any songs you've purchased under that name are available to stream when in a hotspot. Think of how easily you can stream a sample clip in iTunes. If you're not in a hotspot, your phone uses the installed cellular chip to connect you to your cell network and it's cmda data access capabilities.

Just fantasizing

 

[Sabenth]

Having just bought a se k700i yes a bit limited via lack of memory stick and the camera isnt as grand as id like but still it dose the job for what i want it to do entertain me and make phone calls on what else do i need.. With the prices as they are on networks at least with the uk ones ill be damed if i setup e mail wap 3g or any other fan dangle bolt on as they call them out here ..

I am happy with the plastic ive already got could do with a memory stick though Come on SE think about it oh and while u at it stick on a firewire port or somthing make the thing the size of a brick again these pocket sized things i keep loosing them down the back of the sofa LMAO

 

[iamkida]

interesting......

ok.... the v3 razor by motorola... kick butt phone... doesn't have as many features as the v551. way overpriced... the ring on the phone is quiet compared to the v600 and the v400.... sony ericsson makes some really cool phones... the software on the newer phones is amazingly slow... the s66 for example... great pictures.... you wait forever for it to save the picture.. most phones do offer the same things... some do it better. imho nokia has the fastest software... motorola makes the coolest phones (they are selling faster than any other two companies combined in the store i work at) ... and SE is somewhere in the middle... as for apple/moto... i'm looking forward to that phone or device... apple for the most part does things right so i do believe that they could fix a couple of things that moto doesn't do right... ie.. bluetooth and isync... anyways... that's my 2cents... all i do is work for att/cingular and read all i can about apple.

 

[slipper]

Im glad this rumor was strong enough to make page 1. Espwcially since i just sold my crappy POS Blackberry 7100T. (what a bunch of wasted hype, its OS is as stable as a virus ridden PC)

I have a feeling this 'iPhone' will be in the smart phone category competing with the Nokia 6230 and 6600 phones and its Symbian OS. The Motorola Razr is a bunch of crap and is only worth maybe a couple hundred at most when people start to realize that there is nothing special about it. I hope the 'iPhone' will have NOTHING to do with it the Razr.

 

[techgeek]

WRONG!

The internals of almost every mobile have not changed much only the exterior form and features. Phones are easy to design and however its to make it compete with the rest that is a challenge. If it took a re-wire of all the internals on a mobile it would cost more that what you would pay today and most of what you pay today is PROFIT for the companies who make and sell them.

I have developed mobile phone software for several big names in the industry and I can tell you the margins are pretty tight!
A new phone is a major project involving hundreds of people. Phones don't get smaller or develop new features by themselves you know. Companies put a lot of resources into development of hardware and software plus all the testing and type aproval that is involved.
Even a trivial development of adding a new camera to an existing phone (and restyling the case) was a 6 month project and at it's peek involved 8 software engineers.
I'm currently working on a new platform that has been in development for the past year and it's going to be at least 6 months to a year before our customers release phones based upon it.

 

[Powerbook G5]

When I heard this rumor I was a bit upset since I just recently bought a Nokia 6600 through T-Mobile to ditch my horrible Sprint phone. But I realize that I don't see why I'd care. My Nokia has great Bluetooth integration with OS X since I can use it to go online wirelessly in over 100 countries with my PowerBook for wireless internet anywhere there is GSM coverage, which means free internet all in the US and such, perfect iCal syncing and Address book syncing, and I can easily transfer photos to iPhoto and send files to and from my phone simply by the press of a button. Furthermore, I can access my .mac email with my Nokia phone using t-zones right from the homepage when I open my phone's web browser and I can even check the latest Macrumor news as well. I can play mp3s on my phone, I can assign just about any song I want as a ringtone for free by downloading the song I want and transferring it to my phone and with the Symbian OS, my phone has full theme capabilities and 100's of applications I can download to customize its interface. Even with all that, I have a nice quality digital camera, a vga video camera, a voice recorder, and 64 megs of memory with an additional 6 megs internal memory and the capability to expand to a full gig of memory if I so choose. Not bad for a phone I paid only $49 for. Unless Apple can compete against that, I don't see much reason for an iPhone.

One last thing, if anyone has seen those new RAZR phones, they really are crap. They have so much body flex that if you put just a little pressure you can tell it can be broken pretty easily and both the layout of its software is poor and simple things as ring level and speaker volume are pretty poor as well. If this is the best that Motorola can do, then I hope Apple knows what they are getting themselves into.

 

[savar]

huh?

what the H does "itunes" phone even mean?

you can download from iTMS? kinda cool, but why would i pay for 4 megs of cell phone internet transfer fees and wait 25 minutes?

you can sync with itunes? then why carry an ipod? sounds like a bad move for apple.

and it won't be in the high-end price range? yeah right. especially if it has the apple logo on it. hopefully this is more of a licensing thing than a joint venture thing.

why doesn't apple get motorola to build them an ipod/hd-based/PDA phone?

 

[DamageInc]

He's got it...

One of the big deals will be ring tones! Right now they cost 2 or 3 bucks for a hacked up song that kinda sucks. Now we will be able to use any mp3 or iTMS purchased song as the ring and for $.99 for the whole song instead of the rip off that's goin on now.

Out of all the posts I've read, jholzner is the only one who has mentioned this (I think). In my opinion, all this phone will be is a Motorola phone with a special version of iTunes on it that lets you download songs for 99 cents, use them as your ringtone, and then transfer them to your Mac (or even PC) when you connect via iSync/Sync or iTunes.

I think you guys are getting worked up over very little. What Apple will provide is a much better alternative to the stupid ringtones everyone seems to be buying for $2-$3. This will be marketed toward people who are ringtone buyers. The big advantage, of course, is that you're downloading the whole song, and can then transfer it to your iTunes library, and of course, your iPod - hence the 'iPod accessory" part.

Oh yeah, this is my first post here!

 

[MacSA]

When will Apple be changing their name from "Apple Computer" to "Apple Electronics" ?

 

[~Shard~]

When will Apple be changing their name from "Apple Computer" to "Apple Electronincs" ?

I guess whenever they would be able to settle legal matters with the real Apple Electronics for stealing their company name...

 

[fixyourthinking]

A theory - or at least what SHOULD happen

Apple and Motorola should have jointly purchased Danger Inc - the company headed by Steve Wozniak.

They should have taken this phone and its concept - added a secure digital slot (with SDIO so a wifi card could be added) - added Bluetooth and then marketed it to Cingular/AT&T - TMobile - Suncom and international GSM Sim card type phone carriers.

Right now, TMobile is NOT a big enough base for this phone.

I was told by a high ranking exec - the SideKick played a major role in the AT&T purchase since AT&T Wireless carried it.

The sidekick II is an awesome phone - it just doesn't have SDIO or bluetooth.

I hope this is NOT a flip phone - and for the price range - we know it can't be a Moto Razr (which retails for $600)

I currently use a Sony Ericsson T637 - it's perfect for my needs and I use it more for Bluetooth - Salling Clicker - than actual calls.

I also use it as an address book/quasiPDA and as an alarm clock / watch

Apple should try to take the lead and introduce a cameraphone with 4 megapixels and a decent CCD.

Camera phones with this quality are just beginning to sell in Europe with a $200 price tag - so it is within range.

Carriers take the loss on phones to get customers - so Apple/Moto would not have to worry about price - and I'm not sure why it's even being made into an issue.

 

[zelmo]

Cool. Even if this rumor ends up as Apple simply providing a s/w gateway for a Moto phone to dl iTMS content and/or transfer songs to/from iPod either directly or via a computer, it's a step in the right direction.

i hope this does not mean there will be no flash iPod micro, though. Apple bringing out a sub-$500-market phone that has some flash memory capacity (128, 256 or even 512) does nothing to address the low-end MP3 player market Apple needs to become involved in. People who can't afford a $250 mini are not going to buy a $300 iPhone that has some song capacity, either.
Apple needs to have a flash player that holds 512MB ($119), 1GB ($149), or 2GB ($199) of music. At least one of those, not all three. An iPhone, no matter how cool it is, is not doing anything to tap into this market for Apple.

Can we hope for an iPod micro AND an iPhone at MWSF?

 

[fixyourthinking]

Correction to production

The iPod was one of the greatest risky moves Apple ever made. Apple tried PDAs, Laser Printers, Scanners, and where are they now? Those creations are all gone. They've learned their lesson and when they made the iPod they were so sure it was going to be a hit. so an iPhone... they can't compete. I do see something like OS X on a phone though. So the phone will use a low end, low power consumption PowerPC processor, maybe a G4; that will run a Mobile OS X. With that, iLife will be integrated in the phone.

Apple didn't actually make Laser Printers, Scanners, and Digital Cameras (I added Quicktake Cameras)

The iPod is an all in house production or at least contracted and designed strictly by Apple.

The Laserwriter II series were HP IIP printers that Apple had HP DESIGN AND BUILD

Some later laserwriters were Canon

Inkjet printers varied from HP (last models) to Canon (first models)

The imagewriter II was almost solely designed by Apple but produced by Panasonic

The Scanners were Canon - these were just a beige plastic instead of white and had an Apple logo - Apple designed the software

The Digital Cameras - first two were Kodak - the Quicktake 200 was NO DIFFERENT than a Fuji Ds7 - just a different software compliment.

Again, the iPod, the iSight, Airport Base Stations- like Macintosh Computers; are all Apple - this iPhone seems like it may be a partnership like the old days. It may even be Apple branded - but it's not really an Apple product - just a remarketing of something.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Does anyone else think this i crap needs to go? Its so played out its not even cool or even funny anymore. Sure iPod. But come on. Someone at Apple can think up something other then iPhone. ICK.