Well, the long awaited iTunes enabled phone is here. Well, I say here. It's actually in America, though it should be here this time next week.
As expected, the new phone was launched yesterday at a previously announced press conference by Apple boss Steve Jobs. Manufactured by Motorola, the Rokr phone works like an iPod Shuffle, randomly playing tracks from a library able to store up to 100 songs. Those tracks can be transferred onto the phone from a Mac or PC via a USB cable using iTunes software. The plan, of course, is to develop future phones that hold more content, and which can access music directly from the iTunes Music Store over the airwaves, cutting out the need to have a PC in order to download tunes.
The new phone goes on sale in the States today via US mobile operator Cingular. The phone will be initially available from the mobile firm's own stores for $249.99 (£136), though music fans will have to sign up to a minimum two year contract with the network in order to get one. According to Carphone Warehouse, the Rokr phone will go on sale here in the UK on 15 Sep. It will be available for users of the O2 network and will retail at £209.99 for pre-pay customers, but will be free for those signing up to a relevant O2 contract.
There is still much debate over whether or not mobile phones will ever become the device most consumers use to play music. The technology firms are slowly overcoming handset limitations (capacity to hold tracks, battery life), and those who champion mobiles as the music devices of the future always point to just how many people already own a phone. Many of those people will never be persuaded to buy an MP3 player, they argue, but they probably will eventually upgrade to a music-player phone.
The big limiting factor, of course, is the mobile download platforms. The fact Apple have decided to launch with a phone that acquires its music via a computer shows that they have recognised just how shoddy most of the existing mobile download platforms actually are (platforms which some of the existing non-Apple music player mobiles rely on for acquiring tracks). And then there is the consideration of just how long it takes for full tracks to download to a phone over even a 3G connection, and how much that download-airtime costs on most US and European phone networks (ie a lot). But if consumers simply transfer tracks from a PC to their phones, then there is no opportunity for the mobile companies to take a cut on music sales - a revenue stream that most mobile networks are banking on to justify their recent investment in music sponsorship and promotions.
Apple and Motorola - and others - are reportedly talking to networks about developing a user-friendly cost efficient mobile download platform to work with ever higher capacity music player phones. Whether Apple and its mobile partners, or another consortium of technology and tel co companies, can achieve such a thing before those bank rolling the mobile music ventures run out of cash, or patience, remains to be seen.