News flash: ROKR may "flop"
posted Oct 24th 2005 12:45PM
Well, we were never too keen on Motorola's ROKR musicphone in the first place, and now it seems that many of you out there agree with our assessment; Moto has only unloaded 83,000 of the iTunes handsets per week since it launched, compared to a robust 500,000 RAZR units each week during the same period. Moreover, American Technology Research analyst Albert Lim claims that interviews with distributors, retailers, and Cingular call center workers have led him to speculate that ROKR phones are being returned six times more often than other new cellphones. Moto CEO Ed Zander is laying the blame for ROKR's poor showing squarely at the feet of the marketing department, claiming that their ADVRtising doesn't make clear that ROKR is not in fact a synonym for iPod. Although ROKR's stumble did not keep Moto from beating analysts' estimates in their latest earnings call, it seems that the ROKR, and not the nano, will be looked back on as the product that got "screwed" in the marketplace (well, maybe).
OK if consumers were dumb enough to think it was an iPod then too sorry. The phone STUNK up the joint on it's own credits.
I think people didn't buy the phone cuz they knew the phones they currently had already played mp3s. So why go out and get the Rokr when you can rock with what you got.
BTW how is the sound on the thing? It couldn't have been all that great.
It's not the advertising, it's the product that is lacking.
Zander's complaint makes no sense.
In going with Apple, Zander was trying to play off of the popularity of the iPod/iTunes product. Surely he must have foreseen that people would have high expectations for such a phone.
It wasn't that people expected an iPod, but they did expect something of similar quality and excitement and design excellence.
Moto didn't deliver at all; they simply packaged iTunes with an old Moto phone. How pathetic of Moto.
Moto blew it on this one, and Zander has no one to blame except himself.
I was all set and ready to buy one of these when it came out, until I saw the specs. 100 songs is nothing. I want something that will turn two pocket space-takers (ipod+phone) into one, but this is not even close to replacing an iPod. That doesn't have much to do with advertising.
I’m surprised they’ve sold as many units as they’ve claimed…
iTunes + crappy looking candy-bar phone = meh.
iTunes + RAZR v3 = sweet. (<- what the ROKR should have been)
anyone who couldn't tell that it was going to fail shouldn't be working in the mobile phone industry... i'm going to believe that guy who thinks this was all an Apple 'prank' on Motorola with a long-term game plan of their own... honestly, Motorola are appalling.
it's an uninspired phone that doesn't jump out at you in any way really. Not to mention I've nothing but bad experiences with motorola's, bad menus, breaking after a few months etc.
Zander's comments about the failure of advertising to differentiate the ROKR from the iPod are foolish, and just the sign of someone covering their butt.
Let's face it...in coming out with an iTunes phone, Zander's goal was to play off the popularity of the iPod. Period. That was the reason to do it in the first place.
So he wanted the glow and buzz and good feelings towards the iPod to rub off on his product. He shouldn't be surprised if people expect that same product, which sought to capitalize on the success of the iPod, to live up to the iPod in terms of design and excitement.
In short, he can't have it both ways. He wanted people to associate the product enough with the iPod to give it a look and to buy it, but doesn't want people to compare it with the cutting edge design and usability of the iPod.
To put it another way, Zander wanted the phone to sell like the iPod without being as good as the iPod.
So, sure, this is no iPod, but that's the problem. It doesn't live up to the standard set by the iPod, and that's what it needed to do to in order to sell like the iPod.
Free RAZR w/ BT headset (see Amazon) or $150+ ROKR. That's the problem.
I think that everybodr is waiting for them to combine the ROKR with the RAZR.
This phone is currently selling at 220 on the unlocked phone wedsites with NO CONTRACT!
You can't get any lower than that. LOL
When the CEO of a large corporation thinks that the reason that one of their products is not selling is because of bad or lack of marketing (the ads for which I personally think are great and there definately has been no lack of ads aired) it's no surprise that company's like Apple so easily dominate their markets.
Get your head out of your ass Ed! Why would anyone pay $250.00 for a phone, that is ugly, crippled and did nothing to innovate. Duct-taping a shuffle to a phone would have better functionality. In response to your comments, I believe that the people have spoken: Screw the ROKR.
The main problem I saw with the advertising is after watching the commercials, I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a product that would make them dance in the streets like Elaine in that episode of Seinfeld.
http://elainedance.ytmnd.com/
Thaaaaat's a lot of ROKRs per week.....
They sell that many n-gage qds a month!
I think the tagline would have been funnier if it read "ROKR may FLOP" or perhaps "Moto to rename ROKR to FLOPR."
Interesting that Zander complains that the advertising didn't make clear that the ROKR was not a synonym for iPod.
No, the phone and its general lack of excellence in anything made it clear enough to consumers that this was not another iPod. And therein lies the problem.
I agree with one of the other commenters: if anything, I think the ad campaign has been great, esp. considering the lackluster product.
Instead Zander should have worked to bring out a phone that would have approached the iPod in terms of styling, usability, and general buzz. Instead he complains about the ad campaign. Pathetic.
A winning product will sell regardless of the ads. A losing product will fail regardless of the ads. The ROKR is a loser product with a good ad campaign, not the other way around.
Wake up, Zander...read the blogs...read the net...read all the reviews from traditional outlets...they all say the same thing: the ROKR sucks as a product.
The only real problem with this phone is that it doesn't look like an Apple product. If the phone were closer to say the RAZR or designed by the Apple folks, then 100 songs or not, people would be interested in owning it. Good looks is the only thing selling the razor, so I cant believe for one moment that if this phone had the same astetic appeal, combined with the music and the Apple hype machine that it wouldn't be a hit. But hey, if it had that going for it, it would likely steal sales from the iPod, and we know Mr. jobs would never stand for that. Thus you have the current ugly ducking that nobody wants.
Last Thursday I attended a Motorola event in Toronto, called MotoScape. They basically had the event to showcase some of their phones at a nightclub and offered free booze.
Overall the event was a big letdown... the only new phones there were the PEBL and the ROKR.
This was my first time seeing a ROKR in person, and I was really surprised at how SLOWWWW the iTunes interface works. There was noticable lag (~1 sec) from clicking the button to seeing the action.
Even though I never liked the ROKR's stats on paper, after playing with one it just made me hate it more. No wonder Apple is ashamed of this partnership.
Also, the ROKR was a Cingular exculsive. Dumb. How can you sell the phone to someone who doesn't live an area covered by them? (U.S Cellular and Verizon are the ONLY companies to cover where I live.) What if I already have, say, a two year contract with another carrier in an area that Cingular does cover? Exclusives in cell phones is a REALLY BAD business move. Period.
I think the form factor is definitely one of the sour points of this phone.. the idea and implementation of iTunes is cool, but if they could stuff that into the RAZR, then I would've bought one.. oh, and add an expansion slot for Transflash!
I am a troll: sebhelyesfarku@freemail.hu
People actually bought this?
Poor old fools, falling foul to the iPod iTunes propoganda.
I'm with you aric, fatten up the razr just enough to have a gig or so of storage. Besides, the ROKR is just a plain phone that has iTunes. I think most of the people that just want to have an mp3 player already have one.