“Mobile operators could hinder Motorola’s deal with Apple iTunes and stop other phone manufacturers from launching similar digital music transfer services, say leading mobile analysts,” New Media Age reports.
“This week Apple and Motorola struck a deal to let consumers put songs bought on iTunes onto MP3-enabled phones. Apple will create a version of iTunes for the handsets, and users will transfer songs using a USB cable or Bluetooth,” New Media Age reports. “But analysts think mobile operators will obstruct the partnership unless revenue streams are offered to them. It could make it hard for Motorola to ship iTunes handsets when they launch at the start of 2005.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to macnut222 for sending us the link via our Contact page.]
Some one is always a party pooper.
And that party pooper is usually Verizon. Witness the lack of support by Verizon for any Bluetooth phones, in the middle of 2004.
“But analysts think mobile operators will obstruct the partnership unless revenue streams are offered to them…”
Money makes the world go around.
Like those losers already don’t get too much money from us already.
People are still able to enjoy the benefits of iTunes via their mobile, though.
Mobile operators can’t do anything about that – only on-sending them (which software/firmware updates can probably get around).
This is no different to downloading songs via the ‘Net onto a Mac/PC – you have to pay for connection / internet charges there, too. Wouldn’t this just be more $$$ for a mobile operator to carry data??
I think New Media Age has got it wrong.
There will be enough people who want to download stuff directly to their phones. They’re going to want iTMS on their phone, not on a PC that they may not have or rarely use.
Some people are willing to spend a lot of money on ringtones, they’d be happy to spend twice as much on a ringtone via iTMS as they are for a song via iTMS. Crazy but true. The mobile operators can make money out of this too.
I won’t be impressed until it does AppleWorks X; and ass [no sic] for the providers….
Apple just need to write the app. The subscribers will install it, whatever the operators say.
This doesn’t sound right. The phones will not make direct access to iTMS possible. They are simply another “MP 3 player” where one can download a dozen or so songs already purchased from iTMS or downloaded to the iTunes jukebox in the persons computer. Why would phone companies be involved at all?
Sum Yung Gai
Dont leave Sprint out of it. No bluetooth phone either. Unless you want to count the rare Sony T608 that they USED to carry. (They only ordered 199 of them).
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I thought it was about the customrer. Oh I forgot, they have to screw you first BEFORE you are the customer.
This is ridiculous. Mobile Operators will love it. Especially if you can d/l over GPRS. They are waiting for an app like this that will utilize lots of bandwidth. Remember you pay per kb over a GPRS connection, not amount of time connected.
The author of that article is stupid and misses the point completely.
pkradd is absolutely right, this is FUD pure and simple!
This isn’t like the O2 device that downloads a non-standard format over the air, the MotoPod phone will use BlueTooth and USB to get its tunes from a Mac or PC, presumably with iSync playing a part when a Mac is involved.
The only way the networks will be able to affect the deal will be to re-engineer the phones software (which is the kind of thing Orange tends to do here in Europe). But that’s self-defeating given that you could simply buy a phone off-contract or go to a network that hasn’t fscked around in that way.