Apple’s media event, scheduled for September 7, “will instead be devoted almost exclusively to the new iTunes-enabled Motorola phone and the company’s partnership with Cingular,” Ryan Katz reports for Think Secret. “The new phone will reportedly be available in two capacities, 256MB and 512MB, capable of storing about 70 and 140 songs, respectively. Users will not only be able to plug the phone into their computer to tap their iTunes Music Library for tunes, but will also have the ability of buying songs on the fly over Cingular’s network, probably for about $2 a song, sources report.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Germany’s T-Mobile to offer Motorola Apple iTunes mobile phone – September 02, 2005
BofA: ‘Apple-branded’ Motorola iTunes cell phones due next week – September 02, 2005
Report: Motorola teams with O2 carrier for Apple iTunes phone in UK – September 01, 2005
Madonna, Green Day, Little Richard and others to star in Motorola Apple iTunes phone ads – September 01, 2005
Apple in deal with Cingular to offer Motorola iTunes phone – August 30, 2005
Analysts speculate on what Apple CEO Steve Jobs will unveil during ‘special event’ next Wednesday – August 29, 2005
Apple announces ‘special event’ to be held September 7th – August 29, 2005
Report: Motorola to debut ROKR Apple iTunes phone on September 7 – August 25, 2005
Motorola: ROKR Apple iTunes phone debut ‘big enough to have its own event’ – August 19, 2005
huh. sounds like I should throw out my ipod now
That would be awesome!
FP
the rumors are coving too much of the field
$2 a song. Who came up with this bright idea.
Why $2? I guess we’ll see for sure what the price is on the 7th but I don’t see why the cellphones songs would cost more than songs bought on computer.
>$2 a song. Who came up with this bright idea.>
Cingular, who else?
everyone is getting excited about this ipod phone????
why??
Why buy it for $2 from Cingular’s network when you can just buy it for $0.99 from ITMS on your mac and just upload it to your phone?
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I bet battery life sucks.
The phone companies want part of the action. That is why I think the ipod phone was delayed. The carriers refused to sell the phones unless they could make some money out of it.
I don’t really care if the songs cost more if you buy them via your phone as long as the ability to use other songs on your computer remains.
The carriers will make money out of those stupid enough to pay twice as much. But they may find that most people are smart enough to realize they are being ripped off. In the end the carriers may be forced to drop prices to encourage sales.
Either way Apple will win. Apple are showing that they are being more pragmatic about their business. No good taking the high ground when the company is bankrupt.
Sounds like Cingular came up with the idea and I bet Apple went along to get a carrier to carry the phone. That way most folks can still just get all their music from iTunes, but Cingular hopes to reap some rewards with this impulse buy on the fly setup. I bet they make out pretty well too.
some people will pay $2 for a song for the convenience factor. Maybe they’re at school… or they REALLY want a song, or they don’t have iTunes…
as long as both options are there… why not?
they are crazie if they think will buy the music for $2 but then again they might not be so stupid. I mean is it me or what is up with all these ring tone and jokes subscriptions on cell phones, so if there is a market for something as stupid as those things, then you better your arse then there will be a market for people who subscribe to jokes, songs and still buy cds for $12.99. lol
Good deal for Apple: some folks who do not yet have iTunes on a home computer will get one of these phones, decide it’s stupid to pay $2 for a song, and buy a Mac.
That’s a significant markup for the phone company. I could see this working at 50 cents. Not another whole dollar, though.
IMPORTANT QUESTION: if you can download songs to the phone, will you then be able to copy songs FROM the phone to a computer? This violates the current rule of one-way transfers to the iPods.
This is a dumb concept. I waited for this phone and now that my contract is up I think I will be saying no to switching to that phone. What is the purpose of buying songs for $2 dollars and/or not being able to use my current songs on my computer. First bad Apple idea in a long time.
whatever,
did you even read the article? please do not post if all you are going to do is whine about something that is factually incorrect.
$2 a song plus, I am assuming, airtime to download the thing? No thanks.
“IMPORTANT QUESTION: if you can download songs to the phone, will you then be able to copy songs FROM the phone to a computer? This violates the current rule of one-way transfers to the iPods.”
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My theory: Any phone-based purchase will be noted in the user’s iTMS account. Next time you launch iTunes, select “Check for Purchased Music” and the missing song(s) will download to your computer. No muss, no fuss.
We still don’t know if you’ll be able to use your iTunes songs as ringtones, do we? I’m curious about that one, as that’d really take a bite out of the carriers’ revenue. Maybe that’s why they want two bucks for song purchases, i.e., to make up for that lost ringtone cash.
Why $2? I guess we’ll see for sure what the price is on the 7th but I don’t see why the cellphones songs would cost more than songs bought on computer
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Because the phone is portable.. when you go the gas station and buy milk, you pay a premium.. why? Because it’s convenient to pop and get it, hence, people’s willingness to pay is higher..
If you can buy music, while you’re in the park talking to someone about music, that’s compelling.. people are WILLING to pay more for the song just because they want it NOW.. they don’t want to wait a couple hours until they’re home.
Now.. having said that, no one expects phone DL’s to eclipse standard DL’s anytime soon..
I love how iTunes is differentiating itself (podcasting, portable dls) to make the p2p networks look damn uncompetitive..
Besides,.. 99 cents is not a lot for a song.. i’m an itunes customer.
Supergrass’s new album.. 9 songs.. about 9 dollars on iTunes..
At Virgin Megastore, the album is $38 (They are a British group, it’s an import CD, hard to find maybe)
Ahhhhhh so grasshopper. I think I begin to see how they got Cinqular to sign on. They will sell quite a few songs at 2 dollars I think. America, the land that brought us McDonald’s and fast food and convenience stores like 7-11, has a large component of “I want it now” in the culture.
So if the iTunes equipped phone(s) can purchase songs over Cingular’s network, then perhaps Apple has also extended the ITMS to Google. The infrastructure to do this is probably in place. Maybe that’s why there is a West coast (Apple/Google) event and an East coast (Motorola/Cingular) event. Just thinking out loud……
ITG
People are already paying $2 and more for 30 second ringtones, plus data transfer rates. To most people, $2 for an entire song will seem like a bargain in comparison. What most will forget to factor in is the data transfer costs if they do it via SMS/wireless web. The cellphone companies are going to make a killing.
I hope Apple will be getting a very decent cut from the entire cash cow, not just a percentage of the $2 per song.