Posted on 09/26/2005 1:17:24 PM PDT by Cicero
At a leadership seminar in California Friday, Motorola CEO Ed Zander talked about his role in rebuilding the phone maker's brand. But when answering a question from the audience about the iPod Nano, Zander apparently lost his cool saying, "Screw the Nano. What the hell does the Nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?"
Motorola, however, has fired back and claims IDG News Service, which first reported the outburst, is taking the comment completely out of context. Company officials say Zander was smiling and joking when he responded to the question, and he did praise Apple and its iPod.
"Motorola has a great partnership with Apple. Unfortunately Ed Zander's comments, made at a conference in California on Friday, were taken out of context," Motorola said in a statement.
The iTunes-capable ROKR has been met with a fairly cold reception since the start. Even on the day of its debut, Apple's Nano stole the show and Motorola was left on the sidelines as Steve Jobs wowed the crowds with a new iPod no thicker than a #2 pencil.
"During the Q&A session one questioner repeatedly and insistently asked what Zander thought of the Nano. Jokingly, Zander said he wasn't there to talk about the Nano - but to talk about the next big thing happening in the industry - the fusion of the phone and music. ROKR with iTunes was a good beginning, he said, and there's more to come," the statement continued.
Motorola says that the 1,000 song remark was simply a joke in response to part of the question that asked why the ROKR only held a maximum of 100 songs. It has been widely reported that Apple -- not Motorola -- imposed the restriction to keep the iTunes phone from affecting sales of the iPod.
Nonetheless, Motorola is working hard to clean up the public relations debacle, even though Zander himself has no problems with the new iPod. Sources tell BetaNews that Zander actually bought two Nanos following the product's launch.
That sounds right, but then most people don't drive 100 mph but they like to have cars that are capable of going that fast. Most car speedometers even show 120 or more on the dash.
Apple is the 1984 Big Brother Establishment now.
I know a half dozen people who have two or three thousand songs on their iPods/desktops. Most of those I know with iPods have something over 1,000, and a good percentage have entire operas or symphonies on the device -- though I don't know the opera to song ratio.
I have an MP3 portable player that has a 40 gig memory. I have about 3000 songs on it and haven't used 12% of it's memory yet. You are right, I'll never need or use it but I'm glad I got this one.
Water and food is the most profitable product on this planet. Sheep better start waking up or they will left behind. The gene pool needs cleaned out
I'm with you, Add. I cringe whenever I have to deal with a corporation led by bean counters. Find a CEO that was once out in the field selling and my confidence level in that company climbs rapidly.
"Screw the Nano. What the hell does the Nano do?"
The nano apparently screws the customer since the screen scratches so easily it quickly becomes unuseable.
Food and water are the most necessary, though hardly the most profitable. Hence, the demise of the family farm.
I agree with him, screw the Nano.
Geez it is as though Apple invented Digital Audio Players.
Give me a Zen Micro anyday.
As a side note, I use my mp3 player more for data transfer, and data backup than music. It is easier than using a disk.
I prefer to let XM DJs do all the work of selecting interesting and enjoyable music.
Correct- but the family farm is going to be one of the only entities to survive. Only if the second ammendment isn't abolished.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini
speaks Monday at an
event in which Apple
announced its switch to
Intel chips.
Truthfully, I don't know how many of the thousands of songs they listen to on the iPod. And, since I don't own one, I can't speak from experience. However, I do know that an increasing number of people are using their iPods, laptops and desktops as the sole music systems now, which I find fascinating.
I may not listen to 1000 songs at any given time, but if I'm on the road and suddenly decide I want to hear "mas que nada", "hyperactive", or "Dr. Wu", they're just a couple of clicks away.
It's not volume, it's variety.
Which mp3 player do you have?
Survive what?
Though I suspect credit card companies will also survive nearly anything. If the world went up in a nuclear ball of fire, burned to a crisp, three cockroaches and a credit card call center would be the only things to survive.
that's 999 more songs I don't have time to listen to...
Nuclear ball of flame, etc- your right. Just wait-you'll see it.
I guess I should never be a CEO
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