Motorola snubs Apple, takes on iTunes
updated 08:45 am EST, Tue January 3, 2006
No iTunes on new ROKR
Motorola's next-generation ROKR E2 cell phone and the company is set to take on Apple's iTunes Music Store with its own download digital radio service, according to a new report from Reuters: The company today revealed details of its plans for iRadio, a subscription music service that will go on sale this year. Both the service and the phone will be sold through various mobile operators. According to the report, Motorola's iRadio service will first run on the Rokr E2 cell phone, which, unlike the first Rokr phone, will not include Apple's iTunes music software. Motorola aims to sell the service and phone via mobile operators. The iRadio service, will include 435 commercial-free radio channels. The company said that iRadio will let users download channels on the computer and transfer them to play on their phones or on car or home stereos, like satellite radio.
Although Motorola did not announce any specific mobile carrier partnerships, the company said that the mobile radio service will cost around $7 per month. Along with the channels provided users could also use iRadio to put their own music collections on their phone, according to the reort. Motorola plans to demonstrate iRadio at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week along with a new C51 cordless home phone that can be used for regular home phone services or with wireless phone dock that lets consumers use it as their cell phone to improve call quality at home.











Apple not a target...
01/03, 09:21am reply
True, iTunes will not be on this phone, but iTunes doesn't have a radio/subscription option, so maybe that's why iTunes isn't on it, right?
This goes after XM and Rhapsody. Moto could have easily partnered with one of these companies, but decided not to.
GORDYmac
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: Dec 1999
Great Just What We Need
01/03, 09:25am reply
Oh! Great, just what we need.
Another music subscription service.
mouseketter
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2004
goodbye moto
01/03, 09:30am reply
This signs the end of Moto's hip edge. Bring on Nokia and Sony-Ericsson.
ibugv4
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2003
Hmm....
01/03, 09:42am reply
What a joke? Why would one of the phone carriers want to support Moto's plan when they have some of their own. iTunes has a lot of customer loyalty, so that name alone helped to sell handsets. Who ever heard of iRadio, or would care?
TailsToo
Mac Elite
Joined: Jun 2004
s**** Moto
01/03, 09:51am reply
Not getting Razr will get a Nokia
whackjob
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2005
iphone at macworld 2006
01/03, 10:18am reply
well that's optimistic, but this news portends the coming of an iphone. probably this year, but maybe early 2007.
dashiel
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Joined: Sep 2001
HelloDoDo
01/03, 10:20am reply
I love my RAZR and was looking forward to getting the E2 and passing the V3 to my wife. Guess I'm stuck (for 24 months anyway). Oh well, another s**** up from the good folks at Moto. The ROKR business was probably just an experiment anyway. Besides, unless there's some great leap in Moto's current battery technology the iRadio stuff is going to flop. My wife's current Sony/Ericsson has 16 hours of standby; I charge my RAZR twice in that time.
boomw
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2003
po' moto
01/03, 10:25am reply
It's never good for a brand's integrity (both Moto's and Apple's) to just disappear from a partnership after such a short period of time. But perhaps customer response for iTunes on the ROKR was proving to be more of a negative than a plus for both brands.
pianoforte
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Joined: Dec 2005
Oh boy
01/03, 10:29am reply
This sure calls for a very interesting MacWorld Jan 2006!
jarod
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Joined: Apr 2005
Restro Stodgy
01/03, 11:21am reply
Motorola has a long history of being a stodgy, slow-moving, good-old-boys company. They were never hip, not even with the ROKR, which was poorly designed to start with. It is not surprising that they would blame the poor sales of the phone on iTunes rather then their own lack of style and creativity. The hyper-masculine culture that rules at Motorola wouldn't allow for such a self-indictment.
Some good may come out of this though. Perhaps now, Apple will finally realize the time is ripe for it to enter the market with iPhone and we can see what an iTunes phone should have looked like in the first place. Hopefully, they will resurrect some portion of Newton and add PDA capabilities to the phone as well.
debohun
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Joined: Feb 1999