The story of iPhone, the much rumored, and eagerly awaited iTunes phone from Motorola and Apple, reminds me of the childhood story about a boy who cried wolf. Once again the rumors have flared up about the pending launch of the device, probably on September 7, 2005, at a special event Apple is hosting for media. (Or those who Apple deems the media!) The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are both reporting that the device is coming, and will be sold by Cingular Wireless. I have run out of things to say about this phone, which if Motorola has “any design” influence, will be a bit like Mary Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
3 trackbacks so far
3:58 PM PT
Apple sends out invites to the press
2:05 PM PT
Speaking about content
Many, many years had passed since I last went into a music store. My back-catalogue of CDs together with a subscription to the Rhapsody streaming music service had sufficed for my needs. But Rhapsody has many gaps. So I went…
4:07 PM PT
[...] I find it amusing that most folks in retail and consumer good totally get the Apple renaissance while people who little or no grasp of the consumer, turn out to be Apple naysayers. Sun CEO Scott McNealy speaking at a panel discussion at the Computer History Museum recently quipped… “Your iPod is like your home answering machine. It’s a temporary thing,” McNealy said. “It’s going to be hard to sell a lot of iPods five years from now, when every cell phone is going to be able to automatically access your library wherever you are.”I would like to point out, that many of us have home answering machines. “Automatically access your library wherever you are” bit reminds me a lot of their “consumer on demand computing business.” I find it strange that McNealy presumes that Apple will sit still, do nothing. (Okay, historically speaking Apple doesn’t have a great track record, but as Mark Twain once said, history doesn’t rhyme with repeat!) We have heard the on-again-off-again rumors of iPhone. When not if, but it will happen. [...]
9 comments so far
7:42 AM PT
Spot on…I’m devoid of all enthusiasm for this gizmo as well, having had so many false starts to date.
8:00 AM PT
i think this is going to be a bit of a challenging device and will be proof that 1+1 is not 11. i think people are putting too much faith in the whole music-phone thing, and well this is a trend that might work in INdia and China, but less likely in the west. lets see how this goes
8:10 AM PT
Funny, I don’t remember any false starts. Moto and Apple only mentioned that such a device would come within a year. 7 September puts them around a year from the first announcement date. All the other “false starts” were websites and news sites speculating and guessing. They had nothing to do with either Apple or Moto.
This is just like the people who get mad at Apple because Apple’s new computer specs don’t match the rumor sites specs. Hello? Who’s at fault for that?
8:31 AM PT
klinux, that’s what i meant. the whole noise and fury and speculation has left me a little cold because of that. anyway having seen some photos of it, well, you will see what i mean.
2:18 PM PT
I still think we would be better served with an iPod that is also a phone (and thus having a nice UI) than a phone that is also an iPod (and thus have a crappy UI). Why is Apple scared to make a phone? They are a lot bigger than Danger! who has managed to it pretty well, let alone RIM and Palm.
2:40 PM PT
The reason Apple is so scared of making a phone of their own is because they haven’t done it before, and probably really want to avoid another Edsel like the Newton. It’s unfortunate, but regardless of UI, not every Apple product survives. I’m hoping this thing won’t be all crapped up by Moto, although looking at the rumorshots, it’s already looking awful. I’m curious to see how Apple is going to deliver the music and at what quality. I personally don’t see the need for a phone that does music, that’s what I have an iPod for…
3:44 PM PT
We have a preview phone for testing. I’ll post again when the review is up next week. Nearly here… :)
9:35 PM PT
I have a e398 and after using a siemens and 2 nokias prior to this phone, gawd, does motorola need to improve its user interface or what? Response is sluggish, menu system is awkward and messaging system is a joke(itap whatever?).
The e398 -> itunes phone firmware has been out for a few months but motorola’s mp3 player does just fine. Its the lack of video and audio recording that is disappointing.
12:28 PM PT
The thing is, the Newton was way ahead of its time. If it had been introduced in 2000, it would have been a sucess. I really don’t understand why Apple never brought it back once Palm really took off. Maybe Jobs is unwilling to support anything he can’t take credit for? Anyway, a phone is certainly not ahead of its time, built in iTunes or not, so what is the risk? Again, if relatively puny companies like Palm and RIM can do it, why not Apple?
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