First there was the iPod, then the mini-iPod, and after that the iPod on which you can store your photographs. Now its relentless march is to continue with the iPod cellphone.
According to reports in New York, Apple, the company behind the phenomenally successful digital music player, will next week launch a music-playing cellphone in conjunction with Motorola.
Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with research firm Ovum, told The New York Times that he had been briefed on the announcement last week. The new phone, he said, would be compatible with Apple’s iTunes software, which has helped to sell millions of iPods. ”It’s a deluxe music player now on your cellphone,” he said.
The speculation was further fuelled by the announcement of a mystery launch from Apple Computer due to take place in San Francisco next Wednesday. ”1 000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again,” said an enigmatic statement from the California computer firm.
The project to build a phone compatible with the iPod has been under way for some time, but has been dogged by delays, allowing rivals such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia to push forward with their own music-playing models. But Apple will be hoping that it can successfully translate the iPod formula and capture some of the world’s estimated one billion cellphone users.
”It’s been awaited for a year, if not more,” said Thomas Husson, a cellphone analyst with Jupiter Research.
”That means people might be disappointed, because I don’t think it will be much more than a phone that can play music — and there are already others on the market that can do that. But iTunes and iPod are quite famous now in the music space, and they will be hoping for leverage.”
The so-called iPhone will be entering an increasingly crowded market. Sony Ericsson’s recently launched W800i phone has proved extremely popular and Nokia’s N series phones — which will contain enough memory to store 1 000 songs — will be in shops by the end of the year.
But one of the iPhone’s biggest competitors will be the iPod itself, with some observers predicting that Apple could merely cannibalise its own market and reduce sales of the cheapest versions of its music players.
Some analysts have questioned whether cellphone networks will refuse to carry the phone for fear that it could damage their own music download services.
There have also been rumours of conflict between Apple and Motorola over how to promote the gadget. Motorola, the world’s second-largest cellphone manufacturer, has a history of advertising new products months ahead of their proposed launch date, while Apple prefers to keep its cards close to its chest and make high-impact, last-minute announcements. – Guardian Unlimited Â