“Motorola Inc., the world’s No. 2 cell-phone maker, on Tuesday revealed details of its plans for iRadio, a subscription music service that will go on sale this year. It also unveiled a new home phone that consumers could link with cell-phone and Web phone services,” Reuters reports. “Motorola’s iRadio service will first run on the Rokr E2 cell phone, which, unlike the first Rokr phone, will not include Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes music software. Motorola aims to sell the service and phone via mobile operators. Motorola said in October its first cell phone for iRadio would be able to hold about 70 hours of music.”
“The iRadio service, will include 435 commercial-free radio channels, including genres such as Heavy Metal, Rockin’ Cowboys and Angry Women. Its satellite rivals also provide specialized music channels, often without ads,” Reuters reports. “iRadio will let users download channels on the computer and transfer them to play on their phones or on car or home stereos, like satellite radio. The iRadio service will cost about $7 a month but the price may vary depending on which wireless phone service the subscriber uses, according to Motorola.”
Full article here.
‘iRadio?” Gee, where’d you get that “i” from Zander, you genius? Blank Motorola, blank their horrible, incomprehensible mobile phone user interfaces, and blank the horses they rode in on; it’s past time for the Apple iPhone.
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STINKR!!
Motorola’s executives ara a bunch of Mothr Fukr’s
lol
MW:THIS
Ssuck THIS Motorola. We don’t need you!
MDD — “it’s past time for the Apple iPhone.”
Macworld is just around the corner!
Apple iPhone – ain´t gonna´ happen.
There is so much behind doors politicking between the phone makers and phone service providers there is no way Apple is going to even attempt that cut-throat market.
On first read the Motorola iRadio sounds like a viable idea.
We will soon realize that Steve has been too slow and too timid in his moves (but then there are lots of people trying to block him) and an iPod-based company is very limited.
There are lots of smart, creative people out there with lots of ideas – Apple does not have a monopoly on them.
if apple comes out wth an iPhone, with service piggybacked through verizon or (if they have to) cingular….
it will KILL!!! Imagine a cell phone finally having an intuitive GUI. I cant think of one right now that is even close to what Apple would make.
Every cell phone I have ever used, and I’ve used a lot, has been sketchy at best. None of them would hold a candle to Apple iPhone.
I’m basing my iPhone GUI predictions on the OS X GUI and the iPod GUI. Heck, give the iPod a little cluster of buttons and the GUI would write itself. Well, maybe it would take a couple hacks at Apple a month.
I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve done a lot of work for moto. They like big splashy hype announcements and then deliver pathetically.
Anyone else remember the ill-fated Moto plan to surround the globe with low earth orbit satelites for mobile communication?
What bright Moto manager thought of this new plan. “Lets see, Nokia stole our lead in mobile phones so lets compete with Apple in delivering digital content”.
Perhaps Apple is responsible for the tiny memory and small song capacity of the original Rokr phone. Moto’s poor Rokr user-interface design sure sucks. Not to mention a solo partnership with Cingular possibly one of the worst customer-service cell phone providers of all (even worse than Sprint and that’s saying a lot).
No worries for Apple on this story. A nice idea-package that Moto will never be able to implement worth a crap. Not even Realplayer and Napster have to worry about Moto.
Too bad about the E2. I’m one of the half-dozen or so people in the world who actually thought it looked good, to the point where I took my new phone back and decided to wait for the E2’s release. I may still buy it, but the lack of iTunes is a bummer, and I have no interest in iRadio. Still, it’s an excuse to keep buying iPods.
Man, another Apple joint venture turned sour. I’ll be interested to read whatever book gets published a few years from now that describes the behind the scenes of how the relationship went bad.
caveat: Apple MUST. and I repeat MUST, have service for the iPhone through a major cell provider. They have been a partner with Cingular now for a while. Verizon and Sprint/Nextel would chop off thier hang-lo to woo Apple and get the MacNation user base. And I bet even Cingular wants Apple to eliminate Moto and go 1st person.
All apple need do is iPhone/Cingular, link some functionality to .Mac (address book, calendar, txt message, billing) and presto!
We can get nuts here, too!
Imagine the seemless bluetooth syncing (finally!) for pics, ical, etc.
Imagine the iPhone being a Front Row remote control,
Imagine the iTunes on your iPhone,
Imagine the integration to your already deeply entrenched Mac life
Apple dont even need to do the hard phone guts, doesnt Samsung make a cell phone? isn’t Samsung Apples new flash mem partner? Throw Samsung a bone for the flash deal, and get the cell phone hardware guts, and give it to J. Ive to wrap it up in Apple goodness.
Who cares, the ROKR line of phones are total junk anyway. Apple should keep iTunes as far away from those as possible. The next RAZR is a different story though.
I guess I don’t have enough disposable income, because these subscription plans for my cell sound like they are just well developed schemes to get me to part from my cash on a monthly basis.
They stiil don’t seem to have a formula that actually give me VALUE for my bucks.
There are more & more “options” for me to pay for something I don’t really own, & which goes away as soon as I stop paying the ransom (Oh sorry, I mean fee)
I even remember when cable TV wasn’t supposed to have as many ads, because we paid a monthly fee to support the channels.
That lasted about a week.
Information no longer wants to be free, now it wants a monthly stipend to show up.
Information & entertainment will soon be segregated by income levels. Sure we can’t all afford to go to Europe, so entertainment is already segmented, but what happens when all information costs money upfront?
Libraries are already in the sites of the corporations.
Motorola can eat me, I’m not paying for radio on my phone.
MDN word is “reached” as in I’ve reached my limit with monthly fees for everything I do.
Cingular totally sucks, so until there is an iTunes solution available via a different wireless carrier, I have absolutely zero interest anyway. I have both a 5G iPod and an iPod shuffle for when I want to listen to music anyway.
You know the more I post on this topic, the more I think it is a no brainer.
Apple WILL do the iPhone, it’s just a matter of when.
Phones and radio is the dumbest idea every, I guess they think they can make a few bucks off of it. The best concepts are to intergrate MP3 abilities into phones and allowing users to use those songs as ringtone ans etc. but very few companies want to do it, and in my opinion it hasn’t been done right yet. Stop trying to re-sale the same services I already have. I don’t want to buy songs again. I don’t want to pay for radio, when I already have it free over the net on iTunes and many other programs. LAME!
the croakr,
sorry i mean the rokr,
is an ugly piece of crap anyway.
i wish i had 2 of them so i could burn one and throw the other off a cliff.
mdn word “road”
as in hit the road.
Who cares? I have no interest in iTunes on my cellphone. I have no interest in any mp3 player on my cellphone. My new Motorola i870 has a camera, video camera, mp3 player. I don’t want this or need it. All I wanted was bluetooth. And guess what? This phone’s got it. But, iSync doesn’t support it.
Hopefully Apple will remedy this soon. Otherwise, open source iSync Apple and I guarantee you that my phone would be supported within a month.
Sony and others make portable FM recievers with ear buds that are powered by disposable batteries, last 25 to 30 hours on a charge, are smaller than a pack of gum, weigh next to nothing and cost about $10.
No subscription fees and your choice of stations.
If you want mobile radio there is a cheaper way.
Not one to nuthug Apple… I’m glad there are more choices in the market for consumers. I like Apple’s warez, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to option of goods and services from other providers.
It’s funny. When Moto teams with Apple, all the sheep sing its praise. When Moto shows some balls of its own – and since Apple has shown to be a lousy partner – the Apple nuthuggers are all over Moto.
What’s the deal with some of you?
Not one to nuthug Apple… I’m glad there are more choices in the market for consumers. I like Apple’s warez, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to option of goods and services from other providers.
It’s funny. When Moto teams with Apple, all the sheep sing its praise. When Moto shows some balls of its own – and since Apple has shown to be a lousy partner – the Apple nuthuggers are all over Moto.
What’s the deal with some of you?
Not one to nuthug Apple… I’m glad there are more choices in the market for consumers. I like Apple’s warez, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to option of goods and services from other providers.
It’s funny. When Moto teams with Apple, all the sheep sing its praise. When Moto shows some balls of its own – and since Apple has shown to be a lousy partner – the Apple nuthuggers are all over Moto.
What’s the deal with some of you?
Not one to nuthug Apple… I’m glad there are more choices in the market for consumers. I like Apple’s warez, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to option of goods and services from other providers.
It’s funny. When Moto teams with Apple, all the sheep sing its praise. When Moto shows some balls of its own – and since Apple has shown to be a lousy partner – the Apple nuthuggers are all over Moto.
What’s the deal with some of you?
To me this sounds like a premptive announcement from Motorola, designed to get some good press coverage before Steve burries ’em by introducing something much better just a week fom now???
Hmmm…. ownership of “i”
If that’s possible, I’ve got dibs on “q” and “Q” and “x” and “X”.
Did iRiver come in to being before the iPod? And what was the first portable media player on the market… the one before the iPod?
Loosen up the undies folks? Points of View seem a little tight on this board.
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Hmmm…. ownership of “i”
If that’s possible, I’ve got dibs on “q” and “Q” and “x” and “X”.
Did iRiver come in to being before the iPod? And what was the first portable media player on the market… the one before the iPod?
Loosen up the undies folks? Points of View seem a little tight on this board.
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Hmmm…. ownership of “i”
If that’s possible, I’ve got dibs on “q” and “Q” and “x” and “X”.
Did iRiver come in to being before the iPod? And what was the first portable media player on the market… the one before the iPod?
Loosen up the undies folks? Points of View seem a little tight on this board.
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