Friday 9 September 2005

New iPod Phone Requires Downloading Calls

Discount Offered On Call/Song Combo; Plans Coming To Allow Selling Of Calls

After all the hoopla of announcing their new iTunes-enabled cell phone, the Rokr, Apple dropped a bombshell, indicating users of the service will require downloading the calls from iPhone, Apple's new cell phone application.

Developed by Motorola, the Rokr will play digital songs from Apple's iTunes music service. Cell phone service is offered by Cingular Wireless, the exclusive carrier of the Roker in North America.

However, it is not possible to use iTunes to download songs over Cingular's wireless network.

Steven Jobs, Apple's CEO defended the Roker and the downloading of calls.

"With the investment we made, along with our partners, Motorola and Cingular, we had to monetize this as best we could. Being that you will have to connect to iTunes to download the songs, we felt we could centralize the process to make it easier for the end user."

Users of the Rokr must use a U.S.B cable from an iTunes-equipped personal computer to download their calls from Apple's new iPhone application.

Jobs pointed out that Apple had sold a total of 22 million iPods, with 6.2 million sold in the latest quarter alone.

Roker users will establish a personal iPhone account and can leave calls stored for up to 30-days in their account. Cost to download the calls will be .69, with the revenue being shared by Apple, Motorola and Cingular. If the user already has an iTunes account, the iPhones application will be automatically set for them.

Taking a page from Google, when a user goes to download a call, a sidebar will appear with 3-5 iTunes that are related to the theme of the incoming call. If the caller downloads one of these iTunes, the cost is discounted to .69, with all revenue going to only Apple

Soon, Rokr users will be able to resell their calls, as Jobs also announces a pending partnership with eBay. The deal will allow eBay to set-up a section on iPhones where users can place their calls for sale.

Jobs also noted that the Rokr does have, like the iPods, the special sensors that detect dissent and criticism of Apple. iPhone will be networked with iSqueal and the Rokr has a built-in speed dial number for a one-touch call to connect with iSqueal.

FEMA became more embroiled in bureaucracy yesterday, in a dispute on whether to issue evacuees regular-sized M&M's or the new Mega-sized