“Motorola unveiled a slim smartphone with a qwerty keyboard and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 at its analyst conference on Monday night, but details of the company’s mobile music deal with Apple Computer have yet to emerge,” Stephen Lawson reports for IDG News Service. “At last year’s conference Motorola announced that consumers would be able to download music to its phones via a mobile version of iTunes in the first half of 2005, but that offering has yet to hit the market. Motorola CEO Ed Zander tried to reassure analysts that this is still in the pipeline.”
“We’re not going to launch the iTunes phone today,” Zander said. “Steve Jobs is not going to jump out of a cake, and we’re not going to launch it tomorrow… but it’s real and it’s happening. Stay tuned for iTunes.”
Full article here.
The Windows phone is called “Q,” and Motorola calls it “the thinnest, lightest QWERTY phone on the planet is here: introducing Moto Q. A seamless fusion of QWERTY and mobile phone technology, the Q delivers email, voice, and entertainment in one amazingly rich but thin device. This fully loaded phone features Motorola’s renowned RAZR-thin design, along with flexible email thanks to Microsoft’s latest Windows Mobile 5.0 software. Smart, hardworking and powerful, the Moto Q will help mobile professionals improve productivity through the power of seamless mobility.” More info here.
Motorola CEO Zander yesterday reiterated the promise to deliver a phone that runs Apple’s iTunes software by the end of September and declined to comment about how carriers feel about the phone.
MacDailyNews Take: If Steve Jobs ever jumps out of a cake, this is probably the cake he’d choose. This Motorola iTunes phone thing — of which we’re well past the just-release-the-damn-thing phase — is either going to be a colossal success or a doomed failure. Or something in between 
.
We’ll never know, because it’s the never-ending Motorola iTunes phone story! This thing has had more false starts than Stuttering John Melendez. Geez, we get all excited (again), and what do we get? A Windows phone announcement. Ooh, thank you very much, but, uh… yuck. It’s like driving forever to a five-star restaurant only to be handed a McDonald’s menu. Could it be more anticlimactic?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Motorola to announce Apple iTunes phone via webcast on July 25? – July 20, 2005
Report: Motorola Apple iTunes phone ‘ROKR E1’ to launch in UK in July, US in August – July 14, 2005
Motorola to unveil Apple iTunes mobile phone during UK’s V Festival – July 11, 2005
Photos of Motorola E790 ‘Apple iTunes phone’ posted online – July 04, 2005
Report: existing Motorola handsets talk to Apple’s iTunes 4.9 – June 30, 2005
MacDailyNews Exclusive: Leaked images of Motorola Apple iTunes phone? – June 29, 2005
Apple iTunes phone image shown by Motorola execs in Beijing? – June 28, 2005
Apple’s iTunes 4.9 contains many hints of iTunes music phone – June 28, 2005
Cingular Wireless considering selling Motorola Apple iTunes mobile phone – June 24, 2005
Motorola CEO: Apple iTunes mobile phone on track for July debut, carriers not balking – May 18, 2005
Motorola expects to launch first Apple iTunes phone this summer, second iTunes phone in 4th quarter – May 11, 2005
Motorola’s Apple iTunes phone software screenshots posted online – May 11, 2005
Will cellphones eat Apple’s iPod or vice versa? – May 09, 2005
Bona fide Apple iPod killer? Nokia’s 4GB mobile ‘jukebox’ phone due by Christmas – April 28, 2005
Can mobile phones and telecoms kill Apple’s golden iPod+iTunes combo? – April 26, 2005
Motorola CEO Zander: Apple iTunes phone due ‘in the next few months’ – April 20, 2005
RUMOR: Apple’s iTunes Mobile 1.0 to be ready by June – April 20, 2005
Verizon, Sprint, other wireless companies balk at carrying Apple’s and Motorola’s ‘iPod phone’ – April 19, 2005
Motorola to unveil iRadio – PC to Mobile to Car Stereo service – April 18, 2005
Will Motorola’s Apple iTunes phone make it to market? – March 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: What’s going on with the Motorola Apple iTunes mobile phone? – March 24, 2005
So who’s really delaying the Motorola iTunes phone anyway? – March 21, 2005
Motorola exec: Apple iTunes phone debut delayed by Steve Jobs; phones will launch in 2005 – March 16, 2005
Motorola’s Apple iTunes phone in trouble? – March 14, 2005
Motorola says iTunes phone unveiling delay not caused by dispute with carriers – March 10, 2005
Motorola says it’s working on more iTunes phones, some models ‘can store eight hours of music’ – March 10, 2005
Motorola indefinitely postpones Apple iTunes phone unveiling – March 10, 2005
Motorola’s ‘ROKR’ Apple iTunes mobile phone to be unveiled this Thursday – March 06, 2005
Motorola’s yet-to-be-unveiled ‘ROKR’ phone will be first Apple iTunes phone – February 16, 2005
Nokia to use Microsoft’s music formats on its handsets – February 15, 2005
Motorola E1060 not, repeat not, the iTunes phone – February 16, 2005
Motorola executive previews iTunes Phone at CES, syncs to iTunes like an Apple iPod – January 06, 2005
Apple’ prodigious hardware and software design skills may help Motorola create iPod phone – December 28, 2004
Apple, Motorola iTunes on cell phones a harmonious deal that benefits both companies – August 05, 2004
Motorola posts Steve Jobs’ Apple iTunes announcement video – July 28, 2004
Apple, Motorola iTunes deal not exclusive, debuts Apple’s licensing of FairPlay DRM – July 27, 2004
Motorola and Apple to bring iTunes Music Player to Motorola’s next-gen mobile phones – July 26, 2004
Ok this is almost embarrassing.
Will the media thus proclaim: “Microsoft manages to erase Apple off the map” once again?
You’re right about it being a disappointment. I was excited to watch the Keynote (in Real or WMP – blech!) only to see Zander (MotoCEO) say that it’s not coming
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On a lighter note, if this is all just planned hype (remember, Steve i the master of hype), we could be in for something pretty good.
As good as that sounds, I just don’t want to get my hopes up.
I’m not sure I buy the all or nothing thinking here, MDN. It doesn’t have to bomb or be a huge success– it can be somewhere in between. It’s not as if cell phones are new or anything. And while this has Apple-juice, so to speak, doesn’t mean we should expect it to be a phenomenon…
Will it have autosave feature of the number dialed when it will crash just before the last digit or will I have to dial it up all over again?
It looks to me the most important feature!
R:
Hence the line in the MDN Take:
Or something in between.
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The Q phone hardware sounds cool. Less excited to see a MS e-mail/virus attacher client onboard. Even though the e-mail client doesn’t have the DRM/RIAA or “where does our money come from?” carrier problems, the fact that the MS/Moto partnership came to fruition before the Apple/Moto partnership is still somewhat embarrassing for Apple from a PR perspective.
Isn’t MS supposed to be the one that promises stuff forever and doesn’t deliver?
Also, while I don’t think the hardware is close to where it needs to be to make the phone/music-player hybrid, it will be in the next few years. Apple needs to establish their presence in this area before MS can convince phone makers that “plays for sure” is the way to go.
If anyone took the time to look, this fancy new phone is “Expected” to be available Q1 2006. So the iTunes phone could still make a release before the fancy new Moto Q.
Well, this wil either shut you all up or cause the loudest bout of whining this site has seen in a while. I’ll get the popcorn.
Silence is golden.
I wonder if the new iTunes capable phone will be running OS X, Symbian, or Winvirus?
Man.. way to drop the ball.. if you’ve got nothing to show, for gods sake don’t hype it up…
Now we’re getting pictures on Engadget of all these iTunes phones…Motorola has the attention of the media, and offers NOTHING.. what the hell!
Er.. the next Macworld is in Sept.
We have to wait till then?!?
Microsoft cell phone …. sorry Moto I don’t want to fight
malware, virus, spyware, and the billions of other infections that
plague Microsoft Windows on my cell phone.
Honestly do you want to throw away a cell phone and buy a new one
every six months like people who own a Wintel machine.
PC Dumba$$:
Apparently you need some silence after having to endure the laughter even from other PC apologists over the Hasta La Vista announcement. Now THAT was pathetic! A-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Still no iTunes phone! This is getting to be like Waiting for Godot.
While at first blush this is a major disappointment — and virtually all reporters will proclaim it as Microsoft beating Apple out of the gate, the fine print is important.
This Microsoft based Q phone will not ship for at least five months. It may not be widely available for a few months after that.
This is the difference between Apple and Microsoft/Motorola marketing. While Apple does pre announce things like operating systems (it must since developers and testers need to get their hands on OSes in advance), Apple does not typically pre announce hardware more than a few weeks before it ships. The only exceptions in recent memory are when Apple has announced a complete upgrade to a line of hardware, and one of the boxes in that line is not ready yet.
Microsoft and Motorola pre announce everything! Microsoft even pre announces some things years in advance (Longhorn, aka Vista). IIRC there was a bit of a tussle between Apple and Motorola a few months back when Motorola wanted to pre announce the iTunes phone, and Apple pulled the plug on the announcement.
The iTunes phone will only be announced when it is imminently available. That is the difference here.
Most analysts and reporters won’t notice this difference. This week they will proclaim how Microsoft has beaten Apple. When the iTunes phone ships several months before the Q phone will these same analysts and reporters state the Apple based product has shipped months before the Microsoft based Q phone? No.
Such is life. Hype is more important than reality to too many analysts and reports.
steve wants all the glory…they have to arrange his stage properely so he bask in the press.
unfortunately steve missed the hype cycle on this one.
it is getting be so…who cares?
I wonder if the new phone will actually be the next Newton?
Put OS X on the the Q with a touch screen. Handwriting recognition is already built into OS X.
Add a 1″ HD into the phone with BT.
I would buy one.
This just in… The Motorola iTunes phone is set for release along with the Australian iTunes Music Store.
Yeah – like I want Windows in my cell phone. My cell phone is irritating enough already.
I think Steve saw that butt-ugly phone Moto was planning to launch iTunes on and said, “Back to the drawing board guys.” Hopefully, the real iTunes phone will launch in a RAZR type envelope.
They can hype Motorola all they want, but I AINT NEVER AGONNA BUY A CELL PHONE WITH SHITHOOK WINDOWS ON IT .. EVER!
Nokia and Symbia are THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN.
Dear Gang,
I just had my cell phone crap out on me. I’ve actually been thinking about replacing it, but my problem is that there are no phones which really sync well using iSync with Apple’s Address Book and iCal. I’ve been interested in the “iTunes phone” not because of it’s iPod like qualities, but because I’m praying that Apple / Motorola will allow it to sync well with iSync so that my categories from both the Address Book and iCal are reflected in the phone’s database.
Do you guys think this is likely possibility or am I fooling myself? Everything I’ve read about this “iTunes phone” leads me to believe that it’ll simply play mp4’s – I’ve never seen it mentioned that other Apple software would be included nor have I seen anything to indicate improved iSynching compatibility.
Mark