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What If Apple Made A Cell Phone And No One Cared?
PreacherTom writes "Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora penned a note saying that Apple is readying a music phone — and a separate, combination video and music phone. He expects Apple to introduce the devices in January at Macworld, a conference for Mac enthusiasts where the company typically debuts new products. At least one of the phones will offer Wi-Fi connectivity and both will become available in the March quarter of 2007 ... but will anyone care?"
Well, now that we've established that this guy knows what he's talking about...
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
No, not really. The Motorola ROKR had iTunes, but it was never Apple-Branded, nor designed or manufactured in any part by Apple.
You actually pay for your own upgrade...
Every time you upgrade the lock you into a minimum 12 months.. sometimes 18 months. The rental over that period is usually far more than the price difference between the upgrade and the wholesale price of the phone (often more than the retail price) - so you simply pay over the next year.
People who don't upgrade are paying for their upgrade even though they didn't get one - however they can leave for another company whenever they want, which is quite useful.
But can it play music from the iTunes Music Store?
But can it interface with a car stereo, and have the car's controls work? An iPod can, but every other DAP can't because automakers are standardizing on the iPod's dock connector and control protocol.
But does it include an easy way to find the song you want to play? Can it synchronize its playlists with your desktop jukebox program? Can it use "smart" playlists?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Piqued. Your interest is piqued.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
Build up an iTunes collection and you're stuck with Apple players, for life.
OK, it's time again for the Obligatory iTunes Anti-FUD Post.
Remember, kids, iTunes != iTunes Store. If you put your own ripped (or pirated) music into iTunes, THERE IS NO DRM AND NO LOCK-IN. Sorry to shout, but it's amazing how often this point is ignored, misunderstood, or obfuscated, no matter how often it's repeated.
iTunes and DRM only mix when the music is *purchased* from the iTunes Store. Even then, it's trivial for even Joe Sixpack to defeat the DRM if he senses that the end of iTunes is near: burn and rip, or use a hack such as QTFairUse for better quality.
iTunes is perfectly capable of dealing with non-DRM music in any format QuickTime can handle, which includes AAC, MP3, WAV/AIFF and Apple Lossless natively as well as Vorbis and FLAC with plug-ins. (The iPod can't handle the plug-in formats, but if you use Vorbis and FLAC you probably think the iPod is "lame" because its interface isn't confusing enough. [Just teasing!])
This is the problem with the US. This phone, as decent as it is, is ANCIENT (in cellular terms) - it was introduced to the rest of the world at the start of 2003, and it's still being sold in the US as a current phone. It's been discontinued elsewhere for nearly 18 months.