“You’ve got to hand it to the iPod competitors: They’re a determined lot. This week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates weighed in on the still-growing popularity of Apple’s multiversioned line of personal music players, telling European media folks that the iPod is but a flash in the pan, soon to be replaced by mobile phones as the player of choice,” Mike Wendland writes for The Detroit Free Press. “To be sure, Gates is engaging in some wishful thinking. And his bravado was no doubt emboldened by this week’s unveiling of yet another Microsoft operating system, this one aimed at mobile phones and called Windows Mobile 5.0.”
“‘If you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I’d bet on the mobile phone for sure,’ he said in the interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German daily. Across the globe, Mac loyalists and iPod addicts pretty much scoffed in unison,” Wendland writes. “But I happen to think that Gates is probably going to be proven right in the long run.”
“Putting music players in a smartphone is a given. They’re available now, of course, with limited storage capacity and audio quality that is way short of what the iPod offers. But with the ability to download songs via wireless broadband coming to most parts of the country by year’s end, why would anyone want to carry both a standalone music player and a wireless phone? Memory storage issues have to be worked out better before such a phone will become a reality. But mark my words: It will be here sooner rather than later,” Wendland writes. “Anyone want to bet which company will introduce it? My money is on Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wendland’s correct. Why carry two devices when a single unit will do?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Motorola expects to launch first Apple iTunes phone this summer, second iTunes phone in 4th quarter – May 11, 2005
Nokia N91 vs. Apple iPod – May 09, 2005
Will cellphones eat Apple’s iPod or vice versa? – May 09, 2005
Bona fide Apple iPod killer? Nokia’s 4GB mobile ‘jukebox’ phone due by Christmas – April 28, 2005
Can mobile phones and telecoms kill Apple’s golden iPod+iTunes combo? – April 26, 2005
Motorola CEO Zander: Apple iTunes phone due ‘in the next few months’ – April 20, 2005
RUMOR: Apple’s iTunes Mobile 1.0 to be ready by June – April 20, 2005
Verizon, Sprint, other wireless companies balk at carrying Apple’s and Motorola’s ‘iPod phone’ – April 19, 2005
Motorola to unveil iRadio – PC to Mobile to Car Stereo service – April 18, 2005
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
Nokia to use Microsoft’s music formats on its handsets – February 15, 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 all that bollocks that separate is best?
Agreed – what we need is the iPhone.
I just dropped my cellphone service
awaiting iTunes integration, would love an iPhone!
Forget an iPod phone. I hate cell phones.
I’ll keep my iPod separate, I don’t want brain cancer.
I don’t see Cellphones over taking iPod any time soon, even if the phone supports iTunes. Here is why, a cellphone is something you replace every 1-2 years when you renew your contract and Smartphones are way too expensive at the moment to be purchased with same momentum as an iPod. For example, the best Smartphone on the market is probably the Treo 650 that will cost you about $500 with a two year contract.
On the other hand I can get a 20GB iPod for $299 and then take a decent cellphone for under $50 with contract.
Maybe when the Smartphone technology becomes cheaper and somthing like a Treo 650 will cost less than $200 then they can over take the iPod.
Good points from Ray. Also, all indications are that the wireless companies will price song downloads at $2 per song (or more). The functionality and ease of use of the software to transfer the songs to a PC remains to be seen — if that feature is even allowed at all, which I have a feeling it won’t be. While I’m sure many people will subscribe to the service, I think that the sheer doubling of the price over iTunes (or Yahoo, or Real, or Napster) will dissuade a lot of people as well. It would certainly dissaude me.
I was speaking above about the non-iTunes phones. Since there are still persistent rumors that wireless carriers don’t want to support iTunes because there’s no profit in it for them, I’m going to wait and see if the RAZR, ROKR and all the others actually do ever come out. It may turn out that Motorola brings them out just after they perfect the 3 GHz G5.
Thinking of starting a petition for an iPhone. Any thoughts on this?
Personally, I would like to see better PIM functionality as well. Can’t stand my HP PocketPC and ditched Palm a few years back.
That’s it! A Newtonish iPhone!
As to the issue of the ‘wireless carriers’ not wanting to support an iTunes enabled phone because they don’t get to wet their beaks, the Newtonish iPhone would of course hop onto WWAN and such for IP telephony (fall back to their service when needed). So that pretty much takes care of those greedy legacy f#@ks!
Cheers!
I think the barrier is battery life. There’s too much risk in draining battery power from music. Using a treo’s organizing function too much eats away at battery life let alone playing media. For those without a land line, battery life it too important. Fix that first.
Bill is maybe correct.
BUT!
The ONLY company that can do this properly is APPLE.
If M$ release one – THERE IS NO WAY IM GONNA BUY OR USE IT FOR SURE!
Why carry two devices when a single unit will do?
because i dont bring my phone everywhere i bring my ipod or vise vera
plus battery life
Mobile phones are so 90s, people need to grow up and realise it is nice to get your life back and leave the dam thing at home or the office, remember the good old days when folks left messages and you called them back when it was convenient to you? – that is what I do and take my iPod with me.
I don’t think this idea is going to happen unless there is a SIGNIFICANT improvement in battery life.
just my opinion…
this is all wishful thinking, but here goes.
Music on celphones will be a given sooner or later. And with iTunes enabled phones from Motorola proving to be the best of the lot, other phone makers will want to cut a deal with apple as well.
Then Apple invests more money into making iTunes on celphones work better, that they actually realize, hey, what if we make cel phone OS’s and sell it to these phone makers.
Phonemakers bite, and Apple turns out to be the Microsoft of celphones. And who knows where else Apple can go from there
JadisOne is right. Bill isn’t considering the more well done studies that have so far been delayed from being published on cell phone’s biological effects but they’re inevitable. The biological stress of cell tech is troubling. Cell phones suck anyway – can’t even do what they’re supposed ot do very well. Even when you’re not talkin on them, and they’re just on, they still emit bursts of biologically stressful frequencies. At least an iPod doesn’t do that.
Virtually every iPod owner, all 10 to 12 million, also owns a cell phone.
Why buy a third device when the other 2 devices work very well now?
TV’s have always sold very well. VCR’s and after them, DVD players have sold very well. Hands up all those of you that bought a combo TV/VCR or TV/DVD.
Multi function units never do every function right. If someone comes out with the perfect phone/MP3 player/still-video camera someone will say it’s PDA capabilities are the shites. Some people will but these devices but they will never catch on the way the plain cell phone and the iPod did.
You guys saying it won’t happen unless this or that are missing the point: those things WILL happen. At some point, battery life will improve enough to withstand the demands. Hard drives will get small enough to fit conveniently in cell phones and/or flash storage will beef up capacity enough to compete with what most people would need. Take a look back at the last few years and how far things have progressed technologically, and it becomes pretty clear that this will happen in the next few years if not sooner. Apple is smart enough to be working on something towards this already, but clearly the time isn’t right for it yet. But it will be. Remember, Apple didn’t do mp3 players first, they just did them best.
I think a great deal of the success of the iPod it that it does one thing and does it very well. I reckon this is the reason why Apple hasn’t squeezed FM radio and other ‘features’ on the pod like most of the competitiors.
The problem with mobile phones is that the manufacturers try and bung in everything but the kitchen sink, and generally do it very badly. Horribly designed and ill thought-out interface, tiny screen, useless camera, fiddly keys. The list is practically endless.
If Apple do make an iPhone, it should look inordinately stylish (anyone noticed a strange similarity between trainer and mobile phone designs?), be laughably simple to use and very very good at making and receiving calls. And that’s all.
MW: Always
Always keep it simple, stupid
nothing to add here because Ray and carl have nailed it: phones are essentially disposable or short term items because the technology is improving so rapidly. Investing $500 in a phone/mp3 player would be dumb given that they would be giving away said phone next year or the year after. But i highly doubt they will be giving away a 20GB phone with a colour screen that can play full quality audio anytime soon. Secondly, battery life. Less than an hour is standard on the thin phones. That will not cut it for most folks either for listening to tunes.
What makes the most sense to me is an iPhone add-on to the iPod, looking something like the griffin FM transmitter. Apple could make iPods’ innards ‘phone-ready’ but then the only people who would have to use it as a phone would be people who also bought the add-on. This wouldn’t detract from the current functionality.
I’d never want an iPhone. Too expensive. You lose or break and you’re out some real coin (and both a phone and iPod). Give me a dedicated and inexpensive cell phone that has good reception and an iPod. I can take one or both with me wherever I go and I’m not a slave to the phone company (at least not any more than I currently am).
And I agree with Henry in not being required to be always available for everyone.
The iPod is gonna be here for awhile. I just heard Rush Limbaugh said he is gonna Podcast his shows and maybe have a link with iTunes..This was said on his show today in response to a question from a caller about podcasting..
wendlend….it’scomingfromapple…in-two-months!!!
I wrote: “It may turn out that Motorola brings them out just after they perfect the 3 GHz G5.”
Note to self: IBM makes the G5, not Motorola.
Since when was the last time Bill was right???? About Micros*%t BOB? About the internet? The command he made was just wishful thinking out of jealousy. It is sad that with all the money he got, he still can’t keep up with Steve. All his life, he’s bee playing catch up with Apple’s ideas and foresights. He though he won over the OS war with “Swindle XP” but now all of a sudden, he needs to catch up again with Tiger, iPod, and future Apple products. There are many things money can’t buy; they are creativity, forthright, vision, charisma, good taste. So what if he came late but dominated the market? Others, especially Apple, already moved on to newer and better things!!! What a frustrating life he must have trying to catch up all the time.
I sometimes wonder if some MDN editors even read the comments. At least one guy there has a real thing for this cellphone/iPod combo, but I don’t see any real enthusiasm for it. The inevitable comments are “all-in-one devices suck”, and “iPod succeeded by doing one thing well”.
I don’t need an iPod cellphone. I don’t want an iPod cellphone. I wouldn’t use an iPod cellphone. And my hunch is that there are more like me than like MDN Editor Guy.
(HA! MDNMW is “audience”! How appropriate!)