Motorola Previews iTunes Phone

[dongmin]

So instead of an Apple-branded Motorola-made iPhone, maybe the whole collaboration was for a Motorola "iTunes-ready" phone. So no iPhone - oh well, probably for the best. One rumor down, one less disapointment after MWSF . Hopefully I can try to dumb down everyone's expectations and spirits so we all can actually have a happy time watching the keynote .

Well there were a couple rumors about the iphone, but the rumors were probably just speculation based on a real announcement by Moto/Apple a while ago that said Apple is porting iTunes to Moto phones. At that time, the announcement was purely for software, not hardware.

 

[iChan]

prob be a new range like iMoto , flip digital cam 256mb with SD Slot

I was always hoping that Apple would partner with SonyEricsson... then we could have MS DUO Pro... I love the MS format, maybe because I've got loads. but SE make better phone anyway don't you agree?

Hopefully Apple developing a whole Mobile OS and not just iTunes. That would be swell.

 

[iChan]

maybe this is it ?

Global roaming via support of WCDMA and tri-band GSM/GPRS

• 3G technology for broadband-like speed

• Integrated VGA digital camera with 4x zoom / CIF digital camera for P2P

• 2-Way video conferencing

• Embedded digital imaging enhancing application

• Streaming audio and video capture, download and playback

• Multi-Media Messaging Service (MMS) for sharing video clips and photos

• E-mail (POP3,IMAP4, SMTP) access and IM with presence

• 2MB built-in memory and up to 256MB additional capacity via removable TransFlash external memory.

• Supports MPEG4, WMV, WMA, MP3, AAC, MIDI and XMF multi-media files

• Built-in speakerphone and voice recognition feature

• Synchronization (Over The Air (SyncML) and Desktop)

• Enhanced WAP 2.0 Internet browser

• Java™ MIDP 2.0 for easy download of games, musical ringtones, graphics and more

• 16mm polyphonic speaker (24 voice polyphony, 16 channels)

• Lighting solution (LED lamp) located on outer flip

please no... feature set is good... but if it looks like that... you can count me out.

 

[puuukeey]

I'm sorry, I'm not getting excited about mobile product until I have full unification.

CellPhone
PDA
MP3Player
GameBoy
Camera
landline mobile phone


I should only have to lug around my keys, wallet and 1 electronic device

-matt

 

[varmit]

maybe this is it ?

Global roaming via support of WCDMA and tri-band GSM/GPRS

• 3G technology for broadband-like speed

• Integrated VGA digital camera with 4x zoom / CIF digital camera for P2P

• 2-Way video conferencing

• Embedded digital imaging enhancing application

• Streaming audio and video capture, download and playback

• Multi-Media Messaging Service (MMS) for sharing video clips and photos

• E-mail (POP3,IMAP4, SMTP) access and IM with presence

• 2MB built-in memory and up to 256MB additional capacity via removable TransFlash external memory.

• Supports MPEG4, WMV, WMA, MP3, AAC, MIDI and XMF multi-media files

• Built-in speakerphone and voice recognition feature

• Synchronization (Over The Air (SyncML) and Desktop)

• Enhanced WAP 2.0 Internet browser

• Java™ MIDP 2.0 for easy download of games, musical ringtones, graphics and more

• 16mm polyphonic speaker (24 voice polyphony, 16 channels)

• Lighting solution (LED lamp) located on outer flip

Are those the specs. Where did you get them.

Send a message via AIM to puuukeey

I'm sorry, I'm not getting excited about mobile product until I have full unification.

CellPhone
PDA
MP3Player
GameBoy

I should only have to lug around my keys, wallet and 1 electronic device

-matt

Now you have that. Its a cell phone, you can store information and recieve emails so its like a PDA, the gameboy is Java games, and now you have the MP3 player. This is at least scratching the surface of what you want. Might not be the greatest, but its a Moto phone, not an Apple one. It just can be tied into iTunes, thats all.

 

[BWhaler]

How in God's name are there no pictures of it? Not one single person out there got a shot of the camera?

Unbelievable.

Anyway, personally I have interest in this. Flip phone? A couple of hundred songs on my phone when I own an iPod? Motorola?

No thanks.

 

[iChan]

I'm sorry, I'm not getting excited about mobile product until I have full unification.

CellPhone
PDA
MP3Player
GameBoy

I should only have to lug around my keys, wallet and 1 electronic device

-matt

a lot of phone out there and already doing what you say. esp the symbian and the Windows varieties.

BUt a GameBoy? do you simply mean a gaming device? i could personally do without games permanently on a phone. Gaming on a phone is ridiculous! give me a PSP any day!

 

[aricher]

My guess is that, like the Razr photne it will be offered as an exclusive for the first few months by one carrier. Therazr at first was a Cingular only product. I guess we'll see soon enough.

 

[Patron]

The pics

As I said (somewhere else) the phone on the picture is just for demonstrating purposes. This is to prevent competition from stealing the idea (according to motorola). The motorola CEO said that the company is going to focus on ease of use and design. In this way Apple is the best partner they could get since this is where Apple is best at. I guess the actual phone might be designed by Apple and revealed by Steve at the keynote. Check out the ipod-like interface...

 

[moosecat]

As I said (somewhere else) the phone on the picture is just for demonstrating purposes. This is to prevent competition from stealing the idea (according to motorola). ...

Uh. They are worried about revealing the shape of the phone a week early because, in that week, a competitor might (i) see the design, (ii) produce schematics for building a copycat phone, (iii) build a prototype, (iv) ramp up manufacturing, and (v) bring it to market?

Paranoia at its finest, if true.

 

[Patron]

Uh. They are worried about revealing the shape of the phone a week early because, in that week, a competitor might (i) see the design, (ii) produce schematics for building a copycat phone, (iii) build a prototype, (iv) ramp up manufacturing, and (v) bring it to market?

Paranoia at its finest, if true.

Yeah, ridiculus. But thats what he said! On the other hand there is nothing mentioned about the phone being showed at the keynote.

 

[puuukeey]

a lot of phone out there and already doing what you say. esp the symbian and the Windows varieties.

BUt a GameBoy? do you simply mean a gaming device? i could personally do without games permanently on a phone. Gaming on a phone is ridiculous! give me a PSP any day!

as for game boy just was making a list of mobile electronics. a big one for me is unification of cell and landline mobile phones.

but ok I checked out the symbian and now I'm excited. WOOHOO!

 

[AidenShaw]

The project got Steve'd

I heard that the whole phone project got canceled - the Steve is pi##ed at Motorola for stealing his keynote thunder.

Anyone else heard that?

</sarcasm>

 

[achmafooma]

Uh. They are worried about revealing the shape of the phone a week early because, in that week, a competitor might (i) see the design, (ii) produce schematics for building a copycat phone, (iii) build a prototype, (iv) ramp up manufacturing, and (v) bring it to market?

Paranoia at its finest, if true.

Not paranoia ... just PR speak for "Steve Jobs will murder me if I show people what the Apple/Motorola iPhone looks like before the MacWorld keynote, and you should all count yourselves lucky that he's letting me show you even a small piece of the software today!"

;-).

I don't know, I always thought the iPhone stuff sounded a little funny ... especially with Motorola as the partner! Motorola makes great phones (as far as hardware), but their OS/software rivals Microsoft and Quark on buggy funkiness. I have to reboot my c343 daily to keep it running smoothly, and I had to do the same with the v120 that came before it.

If Apple is going to make a phone, I hope they do the design and software themselves. Outsource the actual manufacturing piece (and the chipsets and whatever) to Motorola.

The first thing that I thought when the iPhone rumors started surfacing though was, "looks like somebody misread the 'iTunes on Moto Phones' announcement." I'm not sure that there will be an Apple-branded wireless phone for a while (if ever), though I would love to have one if it had reliable software and some PDA functions (basically what the iPod has, but with data entry).

 

[bigandy]

my view?

apple, dump the heap of cr*p that is motorola, get with sonyericsson and make a nice new, clean lined version of the P910 and i'll be happy.

my p910 is the only phone that'll do everything i want and from what i see on release schedules that's not going to change for at least a year. before the p910, i had a p900. it did almost everything. i'm now happy, and i wont change unless apple and apple alone bring out a P910 beater.

and that's about as likely as me selling my Macs and going back to pcs!

 

[macridah]

Uh. They are worried about revealing the shape of the phone a week early because, in that week, a competitor might (i) see the design, (ii) produce schematics for building a copycat phone, (iii) build a prototype, (iv) ramp up manufacturing, and (v) bring it to market?

Paranoia at its finest, if true.

Maybe Steve wanted to have the new phone first be seen at macworld, not CES.

All eyes at macworld not at CES. Apple didn't even show up at CES, but a lot of vendors showed off new iPos accessories .

 

[hippycowboy]

maybe this is it ?

Global roaming via support of WCDMA and tri-band GSM/GPRS

• 3G technology for broadband-like speed

• Integrated VGA digital camera with 4x zoom / CIF digital camera for P2P

• 2-Way video conferencing

• Embedded digital imaging enhancing application

• Streaming audio and video capture, download and playback

• Multi-Media Messaging Service (MMS) for sharing video clips and photos

• E-mail (POP3,IMAP4, SMTP) access and IM with presence

• 2MB built-in memory and up to 256MB additional capacity via removable TransFlash external memory.

• Supports MPEG4, WMV, WMA, MP3, AAC, MIDI and XMF multi-media files

• Built-in speakerphone and voice recognition feature

• Synchronization (Over The Air (SyncML) and Desktop)

• Enhanced WAP 2.0 Internet browser

• Java™ MIDP 2.0 for easy download of games, musical ringtones, graphics and more

• 16mm polyphonic speaker (24 voice polyphony, 16 channels)

• Lighting solution (LED lamp) located on outer flip

This phone is the v980, a 3G (WCDMA) unit currently a Vodaphone exclusive from Motorola. This is not the 'iPhone', if there is one; and It will not be called that (and thank God!) As one poster mentioned before, the agreement Moto and Apple announced in July was for "software", not hardware, so it stands to reason the actual hardware would be Motorola designed. People should bring down their expectations a bit. And remember they also said it would be a mid-range device. So no Razr-like device this time kids! I have the Razr and would really be pissed if they came out with something as pedestrian as this so soon after I purchased it. I've had it exactly two and a half weeks.

 

[zelmo]

Why do people think Apple will be unveiling a Moto product at MWSF? At most, I think Steve will make mention of the joint effort by Apple and Moto to create an iTMS ready phone. I haven't read anything suggesting that it's glorious unveiling is imminent. If it were, Moto would have done so at CES. They announced what was ready to be announced.
Besides, doesn't Steve already have enough to talk about at the Keynote?

 

[Stella]

Battery life in phones generally suck. Playing music on any cell phone is going to just suck away the remaining battery life pretty quickly.

If Apple were intelligent they wouldn't restrict iTunes functionality to Motorola, instead it would be an application that would be ported to the most popular type of phones - i.e., Nokia, Siemens, SE etc.

Apple's eggs in one basket and that one sucks - Motorolla.

 

[Deefuzz]

I personally have no need to play MP3s through a phone, especially when I have a 40 GB iPod attached to my waist. Sure it would be cool to be able to access the iTMS at anytime to grab a song, but I cannot recall ever being in a "song emergency" where I NEEDED access to a certain song.

I was hoping more for an Apple designed phone. I will be in the market for a new phone soon, and it would be great to have an attractive one designed by Apple...with Bluetooth!

But I guess time may tell...just my $0.02

 

[Object-X]

A flash based iPod that talks

How much you want to bet this is the flash based iPod that is being rumored?

 

[frozenstar]

How much you want to bet this is the flash based iPod that is being rumored?

The flash-based iPod is already being manufactured in Asia by Apple's second iPod OEM, and will likely be available immediately after MWSF.
This phone is being manufactured by Motorola, and isn't expected to be available for another few months.

I wouldn't make that bet if I were you.

 

[Object-X]

Phone call from Phil

Why do people think Apple will be unveiling a Moto product at MWSF? At most, I think Steve will make mention of the joint effort by Apple and Moto to create an iTMS ready phone. I haven't read anything suggesting that it's glorious unveiling is imminent. If it were, Moto would have done so at CES. They announced what was ready to be announced.
Besides, doesn't Steve already have enough to talk about at the Keynote?

I bet executives got a phone call from SJ telling them in no uncertain terms...you better not show them the phone Thursday!!! He is going to want to show off the new iTunes player himself Tuesday. He will probably get a phone call from Phil while at the end of his keynote...oh ya, one more thing!

 

[Porchland]

If they did this, I would buy it in a heartbeat! I love the RAZR phone, but i held off buying it because of waiting for the iPhone announcement.

the razr is such an apple-like phone - goes hand in hand with a cool pb

/asif

I expected when I saw the Razor that it WAS the iPhone. I just didn't see Motorola coming out with a concept phone, spending a lot of marketing money on it, and then coming out two months later with something completely different that's compatible with iTunes.

That said, I would be surprised to see Apple allow Motorola expand this to all its new phones over the next year unless the iPod is literally going to morph into a phone; unless Apple makes the same margin making a Motorola phone iTunes capable, it just canibalizes the iPod market. It does make a lot of sense, though, to just have once device. Maybe Apple's thinking that "further down the road" isn't so far.

 

[zelmo]

How much you want to bet this is the flash based iPod that is being rumored?

I sure hope not. An iPhone would certainly cost as much as, if not more than, a mini. To me, the best reason to make a flash based 1-2GB iPod is to offer a low cost entry into the whole iPod/iTMS/Apple DRM universe to people who have not joined thus far because the cost was too high. If Apple offers a good flash player for $149, they will take another huge bite out of the mp3 market now, while it is still quite young. Parents who wouldn't spend $250 or more on a portable music player for themselves or their kids will buy at $149, expanding the market. Lure these people into the iPod dream now, and you'll most likely have them for life.