iTunes phone launch expected next week

Apple and Motorola Inc. are expected to team up with Cingular Wireless LLC next week to introduce an iTunes mobile phone that can store and play digital music.

The companies are likely to announce the long-awaited device on Sept. 7, according to telecommunications analyst Roger Entner of Ovum Ltd., as well as published reports. Apple has said it would make a major product announcement at an event in San Francisco that day. Representatives of Apple, Motorola and Cingular all declined to comment.

The phone most likely will have storage capacity similar to the iPod Shuffle, which is available with as much as 1GB of flash memory, and use an online music service co-branded by both Apple and Cingular, according to Entner. That service probably will offer all the music available today on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, he said. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that users will be able to download songs onto the phone from the iTunes music collections on their computers. It was not clear whether they would be able to download songs over the mobile phone network, according to the Times.

The Journal also reported Tuesday that Apple may introduce a new line of single-purpose portable music players to replace the iPod Mini. They would have flash memory and be slimmer than the iPod Mini, the paper said.

Motorola announced last year that it would develop an iTunes phone with Apple. Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Weyrauch on Tuesday reiterated plans to introduce the device in the third quarter of this year. The companies originally had said it would come out in the first half of 2005.

http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/23370

"In his own write up of the event at CNet, John Borland referred to recent news articles and speculates that the company might unveil a video iPod. Or perhaps Apple will finally take the wraps off the iTunes-enabled Motorola phone. Other options, which don't seem to merit such a major event, include the introduction of a flash-based iPod mini or larger-capacity iPod shuffles."

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1249

"Sources had previously reported that Motorola and Apple would use the 7th of September to unveil the first of Motorola's iTunes ROKR cell phones. The phones will be the first product of Motorola's strategic partnership with Apple, aimed at enabling music fans to transfer their favorite songs from Apple's iTunes jukebox software to compatible Motorola mobile handsets. It was previously reported that Motorola was also looking into the rental of a studio venue in Manhattan to hold an east coast launch party for the phones."

http://news.softpedia.com/news/FCC-Approves-Motorola-iTunes-Phones-7021.shtml

"The Federal Communications Commission published some pictures and the manual for Motorola E790 – the much-discussed cell phone for use on U.S. mobile networks, on a government Web site... The i-Phone with VGA-quality camera, stereo speakers and the ability of holding a gigabyte of songs on removable “mini-SD” flash storage cards may be available sooner than we might expect. Apple and Motorola oficials confirmed that the cell-phone will come out in the near future, states FCC report."

image:

http://news.softpedia.com/images//news2/FCC-Approves-Motorola-iTunes-Phones-2.jpg

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