Apple/Motorola iPod Phone On Way
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer and Motorola plan next week to unveil a long-awaited mobile phone and music player that will incorporate Apple's iTunes software, a telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement said Monday.
The development marks a melding of two of the digital era's most popular devices, the cell phone and the iPod, which has become largely synonymous with the concept of downloading songs from the Internet or transferring them from compact discs.
Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said he had been told by an industry executive that the new phone, made by Motorola, would be marketed by Cingular Wireless. Entner said it would include iTunes software, which helps power the iPod.
The software will allow people to transfer songs from a personal computer to the mobile phone, then listen to the songs, presumably through headphones. "It's a deluxe music player now on your cell phone," he said of the device.
Apple, Motorola and Cingular all declined to confirm or deny the report. But Apple did announce on Monday that it would hold a major press event Sept. 7 in San Francisco that it indicated was music-related. Apple is routinely tight-lipped about pending product announcements, preferring to make a splash on the day of the event.
The plans outlined for an Apple phone are consistent with recent announcements by Motorola, which said in July 2004 that it planned to develop a device that would include the iTunes software.
Last month, Motorola said that development of the iTunes phone was on track to be unveiled by the end of September.
Jennifer Weyrauch, a spokeswoman for Motorola, declined on Monday to comment on Apple's announcement plans for next week. Weyrauch did say, generally speaking, that when Motorola unveiled a phone equipped with iTunes software, it would be a part of a line of music-oriented phones that the company calls Rokr.
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
