Motorola, Apple unveil ‘iPod Phone’

Motorola and Apple today unveiled their much-anticipated music phone at a media event in San Francisco, putting certainly not the first music-enabled handset on the market but definitely the most ballyhooed.

Cingular began selling the new GSM phones, called the Motorola ROKR, for $250 today online and will be selling them in stores tomorrow. So far, Cingular is the exclusive outlet for the device, but several GSM carriers are expected to offer the device soon.

The three companies are counting on the popularity of Apple’s iPod line and digital music in general to propel sales of the new device. In fact, Motorola is hoping ROKR will be the 2005 hit-equivalent of the RAZR, which also debuted over Cingular’s network to much critical acclaim.

“We predict that the ROKR is going to be a hit this holiday season,” said Motorola CEO Ed Zander.

While the new device, called the Motorola ROKR, has been held up as the wireless version of iPod, its capabilities are far more limited. Its flash memory is capable of storing only 100 songs compared to the thousands the most basic iPods can hold. Otherwise the music capabilities of the ROKR work exactly like that of the iPod. The phone comes preloaded with Apple’s iTunes software and a USB connection is used to connect and load music from a Windows or Macintosh PC.

Despite speculation that Apple would support over-the-air downloads of music through iTunes, the device is entirely dependent on a PC to receive music. When Motorola and Apple first announced the deal more than a year ago, Apple executives said they would be focusing on wired connections to help create a device that is more economical for the average user. But since that announcement Apple and Motorola’s plans have become more ambitious and 3G networks are now much more widespread.

The original music storage capacity has grown from original estimates of 12 songs to 100 songs and Motorola has added higher-end features to the device such as a video-capable zoom camera, Bluetooth and MMS capabilities as well as a high-definition color display for viewing album art accompanying individual songs. Furthermore, many carriers are looking for 3G services to enhance their consumer data revenues and music downloads have been targeted as a prime market for such growth. Cingular is expected to have UMTS networks in 15-20 markets by the end of the year, including the six networks launched previously by AT&T Wireless. Other GSM carriers worldwide already have UMTS networks in place and are already supporting music downloads.

The ROKR, while supporting the global 1800 MHz band as well as cellular and PCS frequencies, doesn’t have an EDGE or UMTS modem. Its data capabilities are limited to GPRS, the rather sluggish capacity of which would make downloading a multi-megabit song almost impossible even if Apple and Cingular wanted to introduce over-the-air downloads in the future.