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Major Hangups Over the iPod Phone
chadwick writes "It seemed like a sure thing: the iPod mobile phone. What could be more irresistible than a device combining the digital-music prowess of Apple Computer (AAPL) with the wireless expertise of Motorola (MOT)? Motorola sent its buzz machinery into overdrive in January when it leaked word that the product would debut at a cellular-industry conference in New Orleans in mid-March. Well, hold the phone. At the New Orleans confab, a frustrated Edward Zander, Motorola's chief executive, stood before a roomful of analysts and reporters and said the handset's debut would have to wait. "
Why do we always feel the need to combine all the gadgets we own into one cumbersome piece of crap that can't do any of the things it's supposed to do well? I don't want my blender to play mp3's, and I don't need a shoe-phone, thanks very much. Besides, if I want to trade my phone up every year or so, I sure as hell don't want to shell out for an mp3 player, as well.
SJ: It will change the iPod as we know it.
/.: But you've already got the iPod, the iPod mini, the iPod photo...isn't that enough?
SJ: It is never enough.
/.: But...
SJ: Hold on a sec...(whips small white device out of pocket, punches hole in its screen). It's the latest device in the iPod family.
/.: What is it? A Powerbook with a 64-bit processor?
SJ: No.
/.: An iPod with a user-replaceable battery?
SJ: (Scoffs). No.
/.: What *is* it???
SJ: The iPlog. A device to revolutionize blogging as we know it.
/.: (ARGH!)
My digital rights don't need management.
It depends on the product. In this case, I think Apple is right. Motorola doesn't have much experience with releasing consumer products that people lust for... Apple does.
Apple has one of the best inventory records in the tech industry. Motorola should listen them.
You Apple fanbois kill me, it is comical. To even try to compare the position of these two companies seems very odd. Apple wraps existing technology into their own design, companies like Motorola make the technology, they are two different companies with two different goals.
Apple has had ONE general consumer hit product, the iPod line. Motorola has been in existance for over 75 years. They made/make ICs, cell phones (since 1983), cable modems, cable boxes, probably every portable radio carried by every company and every emergency service in the US, the first "portable" walkie-talkies in the 40's, the first 4:3 color television picture tube, Neil Armstrongs voice was heard from the moon over a Motorola designed radio, embedded processors for video games, chips inside digital cameras, electronics for the automotive industry, some of the first televisions home radios and car radios, pagers and more. You probably have at least two things within your sight right now that have something made by Motorola in them. Excitement or not, they are selling and developing products.
Oh, I said fanbios, I guess you can mod me down now.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.