Motorola, Inc. and Apple today announced they are partnering to enable millions of music lovers to transfer their favorite songs from the iTunes jukebox on their Mac or PC, including songs from the iTunes Music Store, to Motorola’s next-generation ‘always with you’ mobile handsets, via a USB or Bluetooth wireless connection. Apple will create a new iTunes mobile music player, which Motorola will make the standard music application on all their mass-market music phones, expected to be available in the first half of next year.
“We can’t think of a more natural partnership than this one with Apple, the brand synonymous with easy-to-use, legal music downloading, and Motorola, the innovator in mobile technology,” said Ed Zander, chairman and CEO, Motorola in the press release. “Being able to transfer songs you’ve purchased from iTunes to Motorola mobile handsets expands the market reach for both of us and drives new revenue for customers, delivering an amazing music experience to millions of wireless users.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Motorola to enable millions of music lovers to transfer any of their favorite songs from iTunes on their PC or Mac to Motorola’s next-generation mobile phones,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in the press release. “The mobile phone market — with 1.5 billion subscribers expected worldwide by the end of 2004 — is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world and we think Motorola is the ideal partner to kick this off.”
Didn’t Steve jobs recently make a wisecrack about people keeping music on their cell phones? Misdirection?
yes…..ipod meets phone
I was always wondering if Motorola would ever come in handy again…
Also wondering if that bikini touch would come in handle. I mean, obviously, a tech-geek web-site has to be loaded full of women / men who need good gift-ideas for their THOUSANDS of girlfriends (i mean, afterall, geeks do become desirable once they reach college… that’s what I was taught…)
iTunes says: “Hello MOTO”
It’s about time. I’ve been waiting for higher end cellphonees to be released. The phones available right now are garbage (no matter what dollar you pay for them). I want a bluetooth flip phone and it seems that there only a few options, none of them mp3 enabled, colour screen, durable, good battery life, and supported by my local networks. Perhaps this will entice more competition between other cellular manufacturers. Looking forward to the release of the “Mapplorola” flip phone. Can’t be more than an iPod and I’ve spent more than that on my current phone.
They should be putting Quicktime in these phones too.
Too bad Motorola’s phones tend to suck.
Hey Ace, ever hear of the V600? Flip, color screen, mp3 ringtones, Bluetooth, 5 mb storage, long battery life, etc. Plus, with Motorola’s mobile-phone tools software and USB connection, you can use your phone as a modem.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Apple will be coming out with a mobile phone, via Motorola, that will have all the functionality of the iPod along with a camera and wi-fi. You heard it here first. This agreement is just the beginning.
mr angry, I think they have to. iTunes relies on QT for playback, and encoding.
Will Palm be next? And wouldn’t it be funny/great if HP PocketPC comes with iTune Mobile Music Player?
You’ve got to be kidding Moto phones are awesome and VERY compatible with the Mac. I was house hunting in southern california this weekend with my Moto phone connected to my iBook as a modem, I was pulling up maps from mapquest with ease. Moto phones and the Mac play very well together. Plus isync works great for syncing contacts and dates to the phone.
This could be the start of the old rumored iPhone device.. Well have to see.
very smart move by Apple. they must do everything they can to make their music technology ubiquitous
This is Apple moving this juggernaut even further. Awesome.
This is their push into everyone’s home. Or, their pocket.
Not that I think listening to iTunes on a phone would really be that great, but I hate cell phones to begin with.
moto phones suck? I like my v600, my first – what sucked was the SE T68i I had before this. No reception, terrible bluetooth audio, UI bloat, wretched little thumbstick …. The v600 is a little UI bloaty but all in all the v600 i smuch better.
Hhmmmm, and what will that phone run on it, Windows Mobile? Symbian? Am I missing something here?
Also, I’m wondering if Nokia/SonyEriccson/LG, etc. if they all want a piece of this pie as well.
Does apple make anything to get a rat out of a toilet, because one is currently in my downstairs biffy. Man, I’m glad I always check before I s(h)it.
Oh and MOTOMACPOD is cool.
I think this is Apple also getting ahead of the game because if they didn’t think of it, someone else was going to.
Damn forward thinkers and their innovation always screwing something up.
damn apple…. i just bought a cellphone. now i have to trash this and wait for moto . .. stupid cool new itunes related news ,.. .
Excuse me, Bill. Pardon, Ron. Coming through.
It was about time. Why did it take this much time? I was waiting this announcement for the past 6 months. Sometimes they are so f?#”ing slow! And where is the Nokia connection?
This was an obvious move, because the music market for the mobile telephones is over 1.5 billion �uros in the Europe alone.
either this is the iphone- (the lesbian sister of the ipod) or apples attempt to enter the wireless phone market- but why would I want my music on my phone when i have my iPOD? Hence the iphone-
schoolgirlpaul-
I concur with those that think that current cell phones suck. Sure, there’s some good features out there, but my reasoning for believing that cell phones suck, is simply this. If Apple designed a cell phone I know it would make everything else out on the market look like the filthy pile of steaming crap that it is..
Well at least if you want a cell phone to do something other than just make calls, if that’s *all* that you want then I guess they are okay…
But cell phones are electronic devices that are *always with you* so I think they should do a whole host of things, and do them well.. PDAs could be done *so* much better by Apple.. anyways..
I *hope* Apple has a big hand in the design of these phones, if they do I’m buying one.
Isn’t it late for an april fool’s joke. I couldn’t believe it when I saw this. Why is Apple wasting its time and money fiddling with phones ?
Today’s cell phones are becoming swiss army knives that can’t do a single thing right. Especially their main purspose in life which is simply being a phone. How is putting iTunes music on them going to improve on this desperate state of affairs ?
This is only going to contribute to the feature bloat that is the basis for competition in the mobile phone market. I just don’t see Apple’s benefit in this. Where’s the money ?
I find this type of distraction very annoying and atypical of Apple’s usual clairvoyance. They must be sucking up to MOTO for some untold reason. Or, even worst, their product department got fooled by the music selling trap that Apple’s strategists set up for everybody else to fall into : a non-profitable business that others will try to make work on its own without the side benefit of an attached high margin hardware device.