Ok, Fine. Apple Doesn't Think Very Much Of The ROKR, Either
from the nyah-nyah-nyah dept
While Motorola’s Ed Zander may be trying to back away from his “screw the nano” statement, it was pretty clear from the beginning that Apple and Motorola weren’t exactly the closest of partners. After all, Apple’s just providing some software, not building an iPhone, themselves. While there are still some rumors that Apple may eventually launch an iPhone, it doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon. iPod division head Jon Rubenstein has been heard trashing the ROKR, by noting that such a converged device just doesn’t make that much sense. He says it’s important to have specialized devices — but doesn’t actually explain why. While it’s true that many converged devices tend to not be very good at any of the things they “converged,” that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to build a good converged device. Still, for partners on this project, it’s amazing how quickly the two sides are sniping at each other of the various products they worked on.
Comments on “Ok, Fine. Apple Doesn't Think Very Much Of The ROKR, Either”
People who bought the ROKR also liked
…Spork and Knork.
“People are going to want devices that do more” says Motorola’s Ed Zander.
Re: People who bought the ROKR also liked
id much rather have a device that does one thing well then a device that does a whole bunch of things poorly.
Re: People who bought the ROKR also liked
I think we can conclude one thing from this episode: Apple does not play well with others! Is there any partner His Steveness and his minions won’t diss in public? Music labels first, Motorola next. Can’t wait until Intel piss them off…….
No Subject Given
They’re already behind the times in terms of phones and music. The treo allows for 1-4 gig loads of as much music as you want. I don’t see any reason to buy a ipod, plus the software has finally reached multitask point. The other day I was running on the track machine playing a Killers song. My girlfriend calls in, the software knows to mute the song part and let me talk then right back to the music. Awesome!
Re: sub-phone
“A ipod?” LOL. That would be AN ipod. Which I want even more now after reading your post.
Re: Re: sub-phone
It is possible to build a convergence device that succeeds all the way around. SonyEricsson did it with the W800.
http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/sonyericsson_w800i_walkman_phone_review_09270202/
Absolutely wipes the floor with the ROKR.
Re: Re: sub-phone
Everybody is an English major, esp. when reading someone else’s writing. Why just the other day I found a typo in a widely publicized and totally professional book. Mind you, being a work of an experienced author means you pay much more attention to detail.
I’m glad bad grammar can inspire you to buy a product. Maybe I will benefit from this personality quirk in my lifetime, selling products to whiny English majors. Who knows, maybe I will have typos in here that will make me rich. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten what I’ve typed so I will have to re-read it. I do so often I don’t even need an editor! J/K, I’ll leave whatever typos I find just to make some company rich.
Not new at all
The ROKR isn’t a new concept at all. I had a Samsung Uproar with Sprint back in 2000 that could play MP3s through it’s stereo earbuds. It also had the pause music/take call feature on the earbud set. It only held 64 megs of songs, but hey it was 2001 after all. There were no limits on how many songs it could hold other then the memory limit. The interface was excedingly simple with one big play button front end center on the phone, number 1 was was “back track” number 3 was “forward track”.
In 2003 I traded up to a Motorola MPx200. This was one of the first Microsoft smart phones. It has an SD media slot on it, so I can just load up my SD cards with music and go. Sure, the rest of the interface is crap, but the music part actually works well since it’s really just Media Player mobile. I can even use an MP3 or WAV file as a ring tone if I want.
The ROKR costs too much and does too little with old concepts in technology to be compelling to me. Yet I liked the Uproar and at least the music portion of my MPx200.
No Subject Given
Quite personally, I would have to try the product out to make an informed decision. I am not going to be bold enough to assert that I know all products just because I read reviews or hear opinions, and further say that it applies to future products as well.
Both Apple and Motorola are fuming. However Apple probably wants to own the hardware too so they don’t have to play Team. No wonder IBM and Apple ended up parting ways, they both hate giving others credit.
iPod vs. Convergence Devices
The biggest problem with devices spawned by wireless companies and phone providers is that they are only available to a very limited market. If my company is a Verizon customer, I can’t just magically switch to Cingular. If Verizon doesn’t provide the ROKR or any Sony Ericsson phones, i’m also screwed.
Convergence devices also need to do what the standalone device does just as well.
Anyone can go buy an iPod and use it instantly.
COnverganty devices
Just buy some memory for your Windows Mobile Smart phone and you can have a top notch cellphone and an MP3 player. I did that with my Audiovox smt5600 and it works great!
I like my ROKR
I had a dismal time about two weeks ago trying to get my Motorola MPX200 to work properly. The backlight wouldn’t stay on unless I pinched the case just right. The phone decided during that time that it would intermittently make calls and would not accept calls at all.
So I was thinking about getting a new Treo 650. I had a Treo 600 before which was OK (I didn’t use the camera much, it wasn’t that good anyway) and I’ve always liked Palm hardware. But then I started searching the web for a new phone and to see who had the best deals on the Treo. I ran across the ROKR on the Cingular site and found that it was $200 less than the Treo (and both required a 2 year agreement for a decent price on the phone). I did some more research and test drove the ROKR. I’m actually very pleased with it. I was about to plop down about $400 for a Treo and another $150 to $300 for an ipod. Now I’ve got the equivalent of both. Granted, I can’t download a song directly to the phone, but then again I don’t really want to. That would probably eat a lot of my minutes.
So, FWIW, I’m very happy with my ROKR so far.
Steve
Re: I like my ROKR
It’s quite amusing that all the Moto/Apple execs are pissing each other off just a couple of weeks after their launch. Quite a unique marketing strategy: launch two products in partnership then have respective CEOs diss each others’ device. Can’t buy this kind of publicity……..which I suppose it the point.
The REAL problem
.. are the stupid rumor sites that were touting this secret ‘iTunes Phone” or ‘iPhone.” Now that we know the mystical iPhone doesn’t exist, people are complaining.
Rumor sites suck, especially when they end up setting false expectations. The ROKR was never meant to be an ‘iTunes phone.” It’s a PHONE, that happens to be able to INTERFACE with iTunes. That’s IT.
Stupid media idiots. Stupid moron BLOGGERS.
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