06/12/2006, 11:15am, EDT
Monday, June 12th
Motorola preps iTunes RAZR phone
The forthcoming iTunes RAZR phone, due later this month, is based on the popular RAZR platform from Motorola, which has turned the company's fortunes around following loss of marketshare to rival manufacturers such as Nokia and Samsung. The company will use the "The RAZR that Rocks" slogan to help push sales of the new phone. As with other iTunes phones, the mobile handset will be available initially through the Cingular mobile carrier network. Last year, Apple CEO Jobs praised Cingular when commenting about the lack-luster reception of the first iTunes ROKR phone, but said that he was happy with the first iTunes mobile phone expermiment.
The sleek flip Motorola RAZR v3i also includes a 1.23 megapixel digital camera and a micro-SD flash slot. The phone capacity is limited to 100 stored songs.
The second-generation iTunes phone, the Motorola SLVR L7, launched earlier this year following a report that the next-generation ROKR E2 cell phone will not include Apple's iTunes software, because it was developing its own download digital radio service to compete with Apple's iTunes.
Motorola had initially planned to introduce the iTunes RAZR phone in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video
, 
, 7
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
This shouldn't be 'news', this should be 'what took them this long?'
All the limitations placed on the cell phone industry are placed there by the service providers themselves, and Apple also had an interest in ensuring that the first ROKR was a failure.
I imagine the RIAA has a hand in all this as well, as they make more money selling 3 second ringtones than they ever would from selling full-length songs at a reasonable price.
In an interview the US manager said they were willing to work with Apple for integration. What's the deal, Apple?
The W810 and W710 are so much better that even without iTunes I will get one and it will replace one of my iPods for when I go hiking or to the gym (since it includes bluetooth 2 and usb, and FM stereo). Still have to have an iPod though for road trips and data storage. The phones are catching up though.