May 12, 2005
iTunes phone update
Follow up to: iTunes phone delayed
Looks like Motorola is actually going to roll out iTunes software for their mobile phone sometime in July (rumored on Gizmodo). Here are some possible screens:
This is a bit of a wonder due to the amount of resistence Motorola is getting from the big name carriers (Verizon, Cingular). Many of you have heard me gripe about it, but the control and pressure from carrier companies is just stifling to the US cellular phone market. Our phones lack features compared to their European and Asian counterparts not because of the phone manufacturers, but because the carriers strip them out. Verizon, for example, doesn't want their phones to act as little iPods because the music would be downloaded from the user's computers, not from Verizon. Verizon sees no profit here. In this model, the consumers lose.
Additional reading:
Motorola postpones iTunes phone release (MENAFN)
iPod Killers? (BusinessWeek)