Apple and Moto announce partnership on cellphone

There's been a lot of mumblings about Motorola and Apple working on a cellphone together, and even an iTunes capable phone Moto was already supposed to roll out. Today, however, the bomb dropped: Apple officially announced some kind of cellphone partnership which would result not just in a Motorola phone that is iTunes capable, but in something users could call a proper "accessory" to their iPod, chiefly one that Apple should have a large part in the interface and exterior design of. The phone should be expected to have fully-enabled Bluetooth (spitting right in Verizon's eye) and run "mid-range" (i.e. estimated $200-350 US), which we certainly didn't see coming. As usual, we only know what little bit has leaked from Apple themselves, so we'll keep you up to the minute with the usual rumors and conjecture as we get it. Until MacWorld, anyway.

[Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I can't believe this. They really are going to come out with a phone. Even at midrange, we know what their competitor is going to be. Look out Razr v3

[motech @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

WOO HOOOOOO

the day is finally coming!

im selling my treo 600!
im going to switch to whatever service i need to get this iphone!

im ready!

[Ted @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

What if this is the rumored iPod flash? I have trouble believing in a standalone iPod flash player, but if integrated into a cellphone? I'd believe that.

[Doug Nelson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

joey, it's a pretty sweet deal when your biggest competition is your own product.

[Nathan Ziarek @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I was going to ask - they say "midrange phone" & "this isn't going to be a $500 phone"

I was wondering what midrange is considered? I mean, I love Apple products, but mostly because I've never had to buy one. There is definitely quality in Apple design, but it comes at a price. Is "midrange" for Apple $700? Maybe Eddie Cue was saying that there is no way an Apple phone would come out sub-$500.

I do like the idea of an Apple branded phone - a Motorola phone with Apple stylings and OS. The ease of navigation from iPod, tight interaction with a Mac including iSync. Depending on the final price, I would get one. Apple has too much to lose to screw it up.

[Nathan Ziarek @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Doug -

Very true. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see something remarkably like the RAZR with a new OS (and the Apple logo) as the phone.

Does anyone remember the motorola phone that swiveled around a black screen with white text? Wasn't that designed by someone at Apple? (I am thinking Ives, but could be wrong). I guess there is plenty of precedent then. Still, try not to get my hopes up. As someone in the market for a new phone that will sync with my Mac, there sure aren't a lot of quality options out there.

[Brian Stucki @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I feel the same way. I think that the ipod flash will actually be a phone accesory that has flash memory in it.

[Long Tran @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Oh god oh god. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have an integrated solution that works with address book and iCal and please please please use a 265,000 color screen, and please please please be a megapixel camera, and please please please dont put in crippled bluetooth, and please please please be apple industrial design.

[Jon Gales @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Not to be the bringer of bad news, but this has been known for a long time: Apple is making iTunes for Motorola phones... This was announced in July. The quote is from an Apple Software VP and is about software.

[motech @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

i think the iPhone would be radically different .
they like to re invent things.

[Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

"It has to be a phone in the middle-tier of the market, not a $500-tier phone"

Wow, I don't know how apple is going to sell it, a mid-range phone to go with their high range ipod. Is it just me, or is this addressed at a different market than the ipod. We'll have to see what Steve says in January.

[RA @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I am very excited about an Apple mobile, but I can't stand Motorola, so I won't be purchasing this one, I'll wait for the Sony Ericsson model!

[murph @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

no f'in lame camera! leave it out for a bigger flash drive or whatever else it will use for storage.

[Brad Spry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Apple isn't happy with making software, it's allow about the software user experience. I'm hoping for click-wheel :-)

Add-on accessories suck. I want it tightly integrated.

[djTA630 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Man - remember - what was it - 1 or 2 years ago when Steve hyped the Sony Ericsson T608?
I'm sitting right next to mine right now.
I'm still sorta' jaded how Sprint has treated this phone. Many people at Sprint stores stare wide-eyed if I bring it in - like they really didn't think it existed. I believe they only released like - a few hundred of them or something - and even *then* it was hard to find.
This time around I think I'll just wait and see what transpires rather than jumping on getting this phone when it comes out (although even *that* temptation is going to be tough)....

[pete @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I see it like this - a bluetooth enabled flash player that communicates with your phone.
Calls are shunted to the headphones(w/mic), contact info/caller id is displayed on flash player's LCD, etc...
Sounds a LOT more plausible than the "iPohne" idea...

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Just had a thought. Two actually. Apple was advertising for someone to work in the iPod divison who had experience of wi-fi. Also, Apple has said that this device will be a proper accessory for the iPod.

What if you were downloading tunes to your iPod via the phone's interface, but using the iPod's wi-fi for the connection? Could they bypass the carriers this way? Clearly Verizon's a problem, from what I've read, but I'm thinking about how this coud be implemented uniformly on a global basis. Just a thought.

[mike s. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Jon, you're missing the point. We all knew that Apple was developing a mobile version of iTunes for Moto. What we didn't know was that they would be so intimately involved with the design, pricing, and probably the marketing of the phone. Big difference. Huge difference.

[Daniel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I think it could be an accessory or module - something like the iTrip, except it attaches to the dock (expansion) connector. You call numbers through your already existing contact list. When a call comes in the number pops up on your ipod screen. Bluetooth in the phone module syncs your ipod contacts database with your main computer. Maybe it also has a keypad. Think about it - your ipod already has music, pictures, calendars, contacts and a screen (color!). Why duplicate all of that? Just add a cellular radio, bluetooth and numerical keypad (or skip the keypad like the Nokia 7280).

[Callum @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

*looming march music from LoTR* Talk themselves to death. Stop it Steve, I feel something has changed tonight, theres something in the air- it's not Victory. As I've said many times before- that logo has to stand for something some standard of quality, can it be retained in ANOTHER venture that will surley faulter, mobile phones... eeeek-amundo.

[Rui Carmo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I suggest you read the Forbes article more closely. There is no explicit mention of Apple being involved in the physical design there - the only mention of a "seamless user experience" seems to be related to the iTunes integration, not to the phone.

Knowing Motorola, I won't keep my hopes up. At all.

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Screw verizon. If this thing kicks ass I am going to just pay to get out of their service and get this new phone.

[Vincent Oberle @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Apple making phones is just something meant to happen, or their cake will get eaten by phones:
http://www.oberle.org/blog/2004/07/06/why-dont-we-have-an-ipod-phone-yet/

[No U @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

For the people who think the "iPod flash" is an accessory for this, I can assure you that it is not. It is a separate project completely under Apple�s direction with no partnership involved.

[mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Huh? Apple's expensive therefore you expect their idea of a midrange phone is 700 bucks?! Put down the pipe man..

First of all.. the cheapest mac you can get is 800 bucks.. and it's decent.. Apple has said time and time again, they see no point in competing with eMachines for the low end stuff.. most people get the iMac which starts at 1300 US.. you think that's overboard? That's mid-range for Apple.. and the high-end is 2000-3000 for, basically, a dual 2-2.5 gig G5 chip (equivalent to around 3.4-3.8 gig Intel)

Now that we've got that out of the way.. they said 500 is not gonna happen and it'll be mid range.. okay? that means it's gonna be 199-250 phone..?

Happy?

Great..

[[e-mail] @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

its a good thing for motorola, seeing how they recently got punched in the stomache by the whole sprint-nextel merger...

[charlie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Like this?

http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=503990

http://www.applele.com/home/picture_f_hipod_r02a.html

[Pete Prodoehl @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

The Apple iPhone will have a click-wheel controller alright... You will dial the phone just like a rotary phone of the 1970's but using the click-wheel to do so. ;)

[Ross Winn @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

The Tazr was supposed to support iTunes anyway. So it will be a middle of the road phone with a middle of the road mp3 player and a middle of the road camera. Like the Rzr. Actually it probably is a specially branded version of the Razr.

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

The Razr wasn't supposed to support iTunes Mobile. When Apple and Motorola announced their plans for iTunes on phones, they said that it would be on phones released next year. The Razr came out this year - *that's* why it doesn't support iTunes Mobile.

[anthony @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Okay, how about this....

The phone has the flash media which has been confirmed to go to apple, this memory will store lets say 12 songs (when i say lets, I mean Steve Jobs said this in July)..so an album. This phone will play music through head phones, then act like any other cell phone out there today...but with the bluetooth, and/or a cable will sync to iTunes. So you will "mount" this phone just like your ipod, and it will show up in iTunes just like your iPod. So you will transfer "purchased" songs from ITMS to your "iPhone" via iTunes.
Remember apple said they don't want this to compete with the ipod, just compliment it...so you leave your ipod in the car, but listen to music through your phone while on the elevator going to work.

[Russell @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Could it be that Apple and Motorola actually drove Nextel into the arms of Sprint in order to provide the high-speed network for Apple's services? Afterall, Nextel is Motorola's biggest customer, but they don't have the infrastructure to put together that type of network anytime soon... and does this mean that the first Apple phones might come from Sprint?

http://www.mobilepodcast.org/2004/12/rumor-mill-update-was-sprint-nextel.html

[Stephen Riss @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I can't wait I just hope they don't limit the product to one service provider. Specially Verizon. They would find a way to charge something extra on that phone. If they do it they need to cover all providers so that us mac enthusist don't have to go and switch service providers.

[kyrkesmith @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I suspect my Windows Powered SPV C500 will do everything this iPhone does, and more. It's got a half gig mini SD card sitting in it, which can store a hell of a lot more than 12 songs. Syncing and all that works seamlessly. And it's got MSN messenger.

[Brian Stucki @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Russell, I have a hard time understanding how the phone would be able to run thru Nextel. Newtel's biggest selling point is there PTT walkie talkie feature. If Apple/Motorola designed it with that in mind then the phone wouldn't able to be used on Cingular/ATT or Verizon, the two biggest carriers in the US.