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More on Apple/Motorola Joint Cell Phone Venture
1+(smarterThanYou) writes "Forbes.com has an article with updates on the previous Slashdot story on the Motorola/Apple iTunes compatible mobile phone.
'Apple Computer and Motorola could soon show us the mobile phone they are developing to play music purchased from Apple's iTunes online music store.
'We've said we have something coming on this in the first half of 2005 and we're definitely on schedule for that. Hopefully you'll be able to see more about it soon,' says Eddy Cue, vice president in charge of applications at Apple.'" Theories about this device showing up at the next MacWorld Expo abound.
Could this phone be the rumoured flash-based iPod?
I also want a Moof ring tone!
Cellular would be the next logical area for apple to explorer. While i think a dedicated Apple Cellular phone would be interesting i don't think it would fly. A joint venture would be a good alternative. Make a slimmed downed ituens for a mobile device. Though i dobt VZW would carry such a cool phone...i mean they finally got bluetooth and look how that mess turned out.
-Will
it seems that this phone + mp3 player might be the convergence of the "flash based" ipod and the apple/motorola venture. Mac heads gotta have their lifeblood flowing...rumors...mmmm
I wonder whether this will be branded as an Apple phone or as a Motorola phone. Seeing as Motorola's marketing gusto seemed to die with the Star-Tac, I'm personally rooting for an Apple phone.
So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices. Who else will team up to compete?
Personally, I'd love to see the Nintendo technologies meshed with Apple and Motorola. To me both Apple and Nintendo, lean towards highly usable, simple technology with high build quality.
Who else is next?
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Glen Williams
Every phone that I could use in my area is hobbled by SOB carriers who view BT as headset only, and charge for transfer of photos, ringtones and everything else.
Not that I want the latest MP3 of Poo Doody as my ringtone, or want to take blurry, oversaturated photos with my phone...It's the principle of the thing...
May Apple destroy the phone market as they have beaten the mp3 market.
Through doing BS like this, they are destroying that image that has been so successful.
This may be a whacky idea, but have you considered waiting until you actually see a product before you condemn it?
Hm...it doesn't look like they'll be able to use the name iPhone...Nuvio's got it locked up:
http://www.iphone.com/
I bet you'll have to madly spin around a little touch wheel in order to dial it. Like a rotary phone.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jul/17isync.h tml Cingular and Apple are already buddies. With Moto's exclusive offering of the new RAZR phone with Cingular, perhaps are budding relationship will truly blossom with an iPhone to tie it all together.
Go Apple.
1) In Sino-Soviet Korea, a Beowulf cluster of iTunes-enabled fone overlords (who I, for one, welcome) plays Natalie Portman naked and petrified in hot grits to old people in a positive manner.
2) ???
3) Profit! Because the iPod has made Apple money hand over fist, so a fone that has the same general function (could this be the flash iPod everyone is talking about?) will likely be a giant seller.
Problem is that cell fones are typically loss leaders for SOMEBODY, and we all know the iTMS is barely profitable, so I just don't see where the money would be coming from here.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
- iTunes ringback (what the caller hears is an iTune bought by the callee)
- Distinctive iTune ringtone (I can program the ringtone I hear with an iTune I bought, according to the caller)
- iTunes will not only sync with iPod but also with iPhone
- iPhone to iPhone gifts (I bought an iTune and I give it to you)
- iPhone to iPhone recommendations (I recommend an iTune to you)
- Express your feeling with iTune (when you call her, she hears a music you selected)
- ...
it's just the beginning man! Wait 'till Apple sells movies, documentaries and radio shows...Who's going to buy an iPod phone when we've all already gone out and bought Ngages?
i have mod points, i can modded you up but i'll just reply instead.
... and now after teaming up with sony -- they capture the old market formerly held by nokia.
for now, iPod is doing well; but sooner or later some competitors will catch up.
this things happens in the philippines and i dunno how it affects other parts of the world. 7 years ago, star-tac is the king; it was overrun by nokia when nokia 3210 comes out of the market -- and then stays the lead until now and very very few people are buying motorola phones. 4 years ago, ericsson is not doing well in mobile phone market
This joint venture by Apple and Motorola is a win-win for both of them. Design/Interface/Usability teams will add value to a technology competitive products from Motorola -- like what Sony did to Ericsson.
Okay, so it's now wireless. But I bet it'll have less space than a Nomad.
Lame.
Please, for the love of god, I just want a phone that will actually make phone calls in my apartment. *whimper*
I'm not in the boonies. I'm a mere 20 miles East of San Francisco in an area where the median home prices is over $700,000. People have money.
But I can't make a phone call from my apartment. Verizon comes close, but Cingular, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, Nextel - none of them work.
My old ass MetroPCS phone is the only phone that I get more than 3 "bars" with. And it doesn't have a camera, either.
What ever happened to making call quality the #1 priority? I don't want a camera phone! I don't want an mp3 player! I just want to make friggin PHONE CALLS!
*head as-plodes*
maybe the rumors are way off and this is what the flash iPod is. the Moto V710 phone has a removable memory card you can put MP3 files on and play them as ringtones, or listen to them on the speakerphone. i guess headphones or a carkit would be possible too? who knows. you have to read the article knowing some are quotes from Apple and Moto and some is filler/speculation by Forbes. not to diss them, but it's possible they don't totally know and are off the mark with their speculation.
and i quote:
Now the mugger will get a phone with his mp3 player
How about Apple and Motorola produce a phone that fully synchronizes with iSync for all the productivity items like contacts and calendars? The only folks that make such devices are Nokia and Siemens. I want everything down to the photo on the Address Book entry... plus decent enough e-mail for getting warning messages from the servers.
Nokia beat Apple with a rotary cell phone, it's their Nokia 7280 (http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,62356,00.html).
Nah, it'll probobly be like "No bluetooth. Clunkier than a Nokia. Lame." anyways : )
Check your renters'/homeowners' associations.
This happens in my area, too, and it's caused by the NIMBY attitude of people when they see a cell phone tower. Even if the cellular provider proposes a camouflaged tower (one that looks like a tree, etc.), they are beaten back by the pseudoscience wackos threatening health problems. They've even taken out existing towers ("Too close to the schools--think of the children!"), which I suspect is why you remember your MetroPCS phone fondly. As a result, my nearest cell tower is a zillion miles away and, like you, I have no coverage indoors.
"Your current wait is expected to be two hours, twenty-five minutes...."
http://treomac.com/v-web/portal/cms/modules.php?na me=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=32
I can throw a little more gas onto the Apple phone rumors. I was on a train this weekend, watching an episode of the Simpsons on my Treo600. The gentleman sitting across from me asked me how I liked the phone. I told him I loved it and we began a tech conversation. He mentioned that he worked for Motorola. I told him I was a Macintosh consultant, and then he dropped the bomb! "I've got a scoop for you", he teased.
Apparently some of his associates had been telling him earlier in the week about an Apple branded phone that had been circulating around the office at Motorola. The phone had Motorola components, but most certainly had Apple brandings on it. He said that he did not have a chance to handle the phone, but that his direct supervisor did. The phone was "sleek and sexy" in her words. He mentioned that there was talk amongst the people who had seen it that itunes and iphoto would factor into this device somehow. They also said that the phone had a slot on the top (media slot?) as well as what looked to be a usb 2.0 port on the bottom.
All very interesting. He gave me his card, so I'll be sure to press him for more details in the coming weeks.
Stay Tuned!
_________________
Tony Ricciardi
Administrator
TreoMac.com
Also, from another source:
It's basically the successor to the Motorola E398, but with iTunes, and extensive Apple influence and iPod integration. I haven't seen it yet, but my info is direct from Moto top people.
The current Motorola E398 was a tri-band GSM bar form factor phone, with a large screen, TransFlash slot, Bluetooth, camera, media player, speakerphone, and FM tuner. And since this offering is GSM, and Steve Jobs has twice trotted out Cingular CEO Stephen Carter at Macworld keynotes, and given other carriers' resistance to the idea of iTunes on a phone (for reasons of either not wanting to provide bandwidth for such a service at a reasonable cost, OR being opposed to having full computer/device connectivity via Bluetooth bypassing their networks), it would appear that Cingular/AT&T might be a good candidate to carry such a device.
And for all those who think that Motorola phones suck OR are only basing your opinion on NEXTEL phones, trust me: they've gotten a LOT better, and actually have some excellent offerings (e.g., RAZR V3 and v710, Verizon crippling aside).
IIRC the Samsung Uproar was the first phone to come out with mp3 playback capability. For the technology available at the time (2001) it was a great device - 64MB flash player with a decent phone.
One of the best features of that phone was completely unintentional - since it had stereo headphones for both phone and mp3 player usage you could have two people talk on the phone at the same time without having to use a speakerphone by giving each person one of the earpieces.
Have you seen my stapler?
> So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different
> groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly
> well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices.
Personally, I think that most additions that are bolted on a cell phone result in a substandard product.
Consider a phone + camera combo.
On one hand, I want my phone to be small and light.
On the other hand, I want my digicam to take quality pictures, which requires a decently sized photosites and good optics (with lots of lens elements).
These requirements are at odds with each other.
On the other hand, adding audio functions to a cell phone should be doable without exessively compromising quality.
Is there a reasonably priced cell phone + AM/FM radio + MP3 player combo in existance?
The last analyst report I saw pointed out that the entire revenue from legal downloads amounted to 5% of the current revenue from mobile phone ringtones.
If I was Apple I'd be selling ringtones on the ITMS.
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