There was widespread circulation that Motorola would finally show off the iTunes phone at its press and analyst event in Chicago last night, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Again. They did show off the first ROKR music phone, but without iTunes capability, who cares? (And I still don’t like the STPD name.)
Evidently the company said it would announce and ship the first iTunes phone this quarter — but for many people, Motorola’s credibility is in tatters when it comes to this device. It’s been more than a year since the Moto-Apple partnership was announced, and there’s been nothing to show, publicly at least, for it. Keep in mind this phone was first thought to have been launched back at 3GSM in February, and six months later, still nothing.
There have been great expectations put on Motorola for the iTunes phone, but when you make big promises, that’s what happens. Every disappointment from an expected launch just raises those expectations, so the iTunes phone had really better be something special when — if — it arrives.
As far as the ROKR goes, I haven’t seen any specs. But, I imagine like most people, I wouldn’t really care anyway as long as it can’t play iTunes music.
I agree that Moto’s iPhone non-announcement was a disappointment and yes the ROKR name is a bit juvenile. However, I blogged yesterday that AmTech Research financial analyst Albert Lin is speculating that the phone will be launched at the upcoming V Festival on Aug 20-21 in Staffordshire, UK.
The event is being sponsored by that other iconoclast Virgin Mobile, and if the phone is launched then I think it’s a brilliant marketing move by Apple et al. Why launch it to industry geeks when you can do it in front of your music-loving, downloading target audience? You can read my post here:
http://mobileanalystwatch.blogspot.com/2005/07/iphone-to-launch-at-uk-music-festival.html
Oops. Sorry about the post. I just came across your blog and noticed this post first. If only I took the time to scroll further down I would have seen you already covered this….