ROKR's price cut to $149.99, Apple sabotaging the market?

Looks like someone involved with the ROKR has finally done something about (instead of merely talking about) the phone's less than stellar success by lowering its price to $149.99 – still with a two-year contract, of course. I guess with all the buzz of more iTunes-enabled Motorola phones on their way, such as the RAZR v3i Damien posted about Tuesday and the SLVR L7 Engadget dug up, the first step had to be taken on the road to putting the ROKR out to pasture.

The one thing that bugs me about the officially announced RAZR v3i is: there doesn't seem to have been much fanfair. Apple originally announced the crummy ROKR (yes, and the nano) at a surprise press event, and even got CEOs from Cingular and Motorola up on stage. But it seems like the v3i was merely announced in some far less spectacular press release just to get it out there. It's looking more and more likely that Apple might be trying to sabotage the very idea of a music-playing phone in the US (they're huge in other countries) to keep iPod sales on the up and up. A MacSlash post from yesterday puts it best: Since Apple has the big name for music devices right now, they could keep forcing phone companies to release crippled, ho-hum iTunes phones to steer us all to buy an iPod until any significant competition reared its head. If that day came, Motorola or whoever could finally have the green light to release a truly iTunes-worthy phone, trumping anyone who steps up to the plate with the power of their music namesake. Sneaky Apple. Very sneaky indeed.

[via iLounge]