“Motorola, the No. 2 maker of mobile telephones, is set to unveil a service called iRadio that will let users download preselected audio content from a range of providers on their home computers, dump it on their cell phones and listen to it on their car stereos,” Deborah Cohen reports for Reuters. “The company is banking on the popularity of portable music underscored by sales of Apple’s iPod digital music players and growing demand for high-quality, commercial-free radio.”
“‘What we set out to solve was finding a way to get the breadth of content into the stereo where people listen,’ said David Ulmer, director of marketing for Motorola’s media solutions business. ‘We looked around and noticed that everyone had a cell phone in their pocket. There is a very large market of potential customers to go after.’ The iRadio service, which will let customers download 10 hours of content at a time, will be available at the subscription cost of about $5 to $7 a month. When not driving, customers can listen to content on a phone with a headset,” Cohen reports. “By comparison, Sirius and XM charge about $13 a month for access to more than 100 channels; online music content provider Napster gets about $15 in the same period for unlimited downloads to a computer, or digital music player. Apple’s iTunes music library charges about 99 cents per song.”
“Motorola has already seen the value in delivering music content. Through a partnership with Apple, it will soon launch a cell phone that works with the Apple iTunes service. But iRadio requires a substantial up-front investment. A customer will initially lay out about $200 for a mid-range Motorola phone with at least 256 megabytes of storage, built in iRadio software and Bluetooth, a low-range wireless technology that streams content from the phone to the car radio or home stereo, Ulmer said,” Cohen reports. “The service also requires buying a $75 wireless audio adapter that must be installed in the car radio, either by the customer or a service provider. A USB connector to hook the phone to the desktop computer comes packaged with the handset. Ulmer said Motorola plans to test the service in several U.S. markets in mid-May and launch nationwide in the fourth quarter.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Will Motorola’s Apple iTunes phone make it to market? – March 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: What’s going on with the Motorola Apple iTunes mobile phone? – March 24, 2005
So who’s really delaying the Motorola iTunes phone anyway? – March 21, 2005
Motorola exec: Apple iTunes phone debut delayed by Steve Jobs; phones will launch in 2005 – March 16, 2005
Motorola’s Apple iTunes phone in trouble? – March 14, 2005
Motorola says iTunes phone unveiling delay not caused by dispute with carriers – March 10, 2005
Motorola says it’s working on more iTunes phones, some models ‘can store eight hours of music’ – March 10, 2005
Motorola indefinitely postpones Apple iTunes phone unveiling – March 10, 2005
Motorola’s ‘ROKR’ Apple iTunes mobile phone to be unveiled this Thursday – March 06, 2005
Motorola’s yet-to-be-unveiled ‘ROKR’ phone will be first Apple iTunes phone – February 16, 2005
Motorola E1060 not, repeat not, the iTunes phone – February 16, 2005
Motorola executive previews iTunes Phone at CES, syncs to iTunes like an Apple iPod – January 06, 2005
Apple’ prodigious hardware and software design skills may help Motorola create iPod phone – December 28, 2004
Apple, Motorola iTunes on cell phones a harmonious deal that benefits both companies – August 05, 2004
Motorola posts Steve Jobs’ Apple iTunes announcement video – July 28, 2004
Apple, Motorola iTunes deal not exclusive, debuts Apple’s licensing of FairPlay DRM – July 27, 2004
Motorola and Apple to bring iTunes Music Player to Motorola’s next-gen mobile phones – July 26, 2004
What about the iTunes Phone?
Yeh-heh-hesssssss — Motorola! The new whores of de music biz!
So nice of you to partner with Apple . . . and then turn around and try a Jap move like this! Yesss — typical.
Hey, Motorjerks — really, really bright of you to go up against Apple on this, baby. I mean, really, I haven’t seen such a stupid move since that dumbass Pets.com sock puppet sued me and I shredded him like so much head cheese! Yeh-hessssss. And de subscription model, too — wellllll, we can’t argue with you there. Nooooo. Every market study ever done proves that people want to actually own their tunes and you go and philosopically get in bed with de likes of that skanky Napster. Well isn’t that sweeeet?!?!
I hope you catch what any male would catch if he bedded a skank — you think you can sleep with something like Britney Spears or that Aguilera whore and not pay for it?!?
I swear as Alpo is my witness I will do everything in my power to help Apple POOP ON YOU, you syphilitic backstabbing chip-making failures!!!
“iRadio.” With you guys running it, it should probably be called “iFAILio”!
But chill out, dog. I know it’s upsetting, but we need to learn more about this plan.
Hmmm, So this thing would let me download content on a device that I could then use to play audio through my car radio?
Wow!
That’s innovation, baby. Can’t wait to ditch my iPod so that I can use this thing.
It will NEVER be released. Kinda like Longhorn.
How about Motorola does something simple and just make me a cell phone that works like an iPod Shuffle and lets me receive AM/FM/Sirius/XM through a headset?
MDN magic word “rather”: As in I’d rather use something simple that they’ll never invent because it’s just too simple.
Companies are just trying to work out how to make money out of all this new tech.
Basically only Apple and the ring tone marketers have been able to rip off people.
Everyone else wants a piece of the action and they are trying to work out how.
Who knows if this will work. We’re going have a lot of crazy ideas like this come out and a few will succeed.
The iTunes phone would do, but I bet the carriers will want only songs sold through their network to be able to be used. They want to make money out of it and if the punters are simply loading songs they already own onto their phones then how are the carriers gonna make any dough? Narrow minded – but the phone carriers always are.
Triumph-
“iRadio.” With you guys running it, it should probably be called “iFAILio”!
MWAA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
Triumph, can we start using this term to describe this service?? MDN, that’s TWO great terms developed in one day: Your own “patchers” and now Triumph’s “iFailio”!!!!!!
Are they providing their own content? If so, this is just stupid.
I can’t be the only person that isn’t willing to pay another $10/month for content on top of $100 for cable, $50 for mobile phone, $13 for XM, another $50-$100/month on music and DVD’s. The monthly overhead for entertainment is getting a bit high.
I guess they are going after all the morons that are willing to pay $3 for a ring-tone.
In any case, why would the phone carriers give this idea a better reception than they have the iTunes phone? They don’t get revenue from this either.
You know, this could *be* the iTunes phone. It would be a horribly sneaky way for Apple to debut a subscription service: by just offering the iTMS content through a partner’s subscription service.
“It worked? Great! We’re glad to be providing the crucial service in this winning partnership.”
“It flopped? That just shows why Apple has never supported the subscription music model. People want to own their music, and that’s just what we offer them at the iTMS.”
Problem is, THEY JUST DON’T GET IT. Who? The ones trying to sell subscriptions to radio, subscriptions to downloaded mysuic that disappears, and so on. I buy it, it’s mine forever to do with what I want (legally, of course). It doesn’t disappear because I get bored with the new NumbNutsSter, er, Napster. I can flip however the heck many frequencies of radio are out there AM and FM for fun, for free. Why in the world would I line someone else’s pockets every month for entertainment? Broadband, cable TV, XM or Sirius radio, phone service (let alone cell) and all add up to over 200 dollarrs a month, and that’s out of pocket after taxes.
If the clowns pushing this succeed, maybe they can help sell the President’s welfare for Wall Street, er, Social Security reform package too.
Motorola are missing the obvious marketing exercise – the sale of iTunes songs to phone users as ring tones. Moto should write a phone based back door to the iTMS where $US2 is charged for a real song (Apple 0.99, Moto 0.99, carrier 0.02) which is downloaded to the phone. Each iTMS song already has an individual number that could be SMS’ed to a special number. Who cares you can only download a few songs – teenibopers don’t care now when they pay $3 for a 30 second painful to the ears rendition.
From Triumph I like “. . . you syphilitic backstabbing chip-making failures!!!”
I don’t know about the others, but the chip-making failures part sure is accurate.
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