“Motorola Inc. postponed plans Thursday to unveil a cell phone that can buy and play songs from Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes download service, a sudden decision which may reflect tensions with cellular companies who also want to sell music to mobile phone users,” The Associated Press reports. “The company briefed reporters on the new offering earlier in the week and planned to unveil the phone at the big CeBIT technology show here. Motorola’s two-story exhibition booth included a display of iMacs running iTunes, but the new phones weren’t there.”

“Motorola spokeswoman Monica Rohleder said in Chicago that the company remains in discussions with a number of wireless carriers regarding the first iTunes phone and will announce it ‘when it’s ready to go,’ close to its expected release time this summer,” AP reports. “She asserted that the last-minute change in plans was no reflection of a dispute with carriers who offer Motorola phones in their handset lineups. ‘Absolutely nothing went wrong,’ she said. ‘It was solely our decision to hold off the announcement.’ Volker Haebel, marketing director of Motorola’s German division, said a launch could come in the United States within a few weeks. ‘The partners have to dance together,’ he said, referring to the marriage of Motorola’s cell phones with Apple’s music platform. ‘You have to find the rhythm.’ He said the iTunes program would work just like the version available to computer users. The software would be compatible, and people who download iTunes to their phones would then be able to transfer the songs to their computers and portable iPod music players.”

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