Motorola cancels iTunes phone launch
Today was supposed to be the big day that Motorola unveiled the first iTunes phone (which is probably going to be the E399), but at the last minute they decided to cancel, supposedly in response to a "last-minute message from a wireless carrier or carriers." The official word from Motorola is that they decided to kill the big announcement after consulting with the carriers who would be offering the phone because they wanted "to wait to announce it when everybody is in sync with it." So what really gives? The cold hard reality is that the wireless carriers more or less call the shots these days, and it's the cellphone manufacturers that have to make them happy (pleasing actual customers is somewhat of a lesser priority). Sounds like at least one carrier who was going to offer the phone (we're honestly not sure who) wasn't happy with something and threatened to pull out of the whole deal if Motorola wouldn't wait.
[Thanks, Matt H. & Steve]
