This article from The Guardian pretty much echoes my feeling on the new Motorola ROKR, the much ballyhooed and uber-hyped “iTunes phone.”
Why won’t I be buying one?
- It can only fit 100 songs – and that’s a programmed limitation, not a technical one. I suppose they just didn’t want the Rokr eating into iPod sales. But I would have gladly paid $500 for one of these things if it could truly function as both devices and I could have some pocket space back. (My current Nokia cost $199, and so did my iPod… in my mind, they just left $100 on the table.)
- It can’t download songs straight to the phone – you have to download them on your computer and then transfer them over. Again, there’s no real technological reason for this. I can download ringtones directly to my phone. Again, the logic appears to be the fear of cannibalization of existing revenues from computers. But again, I look at it as money left on the table. I think of songs I want when I’m at concerts, or talking with friends, or listening to the radio in the car. I can’t count how many times I’ve sat in front of my computer at home, browsing through iTunes and racking my brain trying to remember what songs I had been telling myself not to forget about just a few hours before. iTunes was such a revolutionary new product because it greatly reduced location as a barrier to sales. Since I didn’t have to take the effort to cart myself up to the store, it eliminated laziness as an excuse for not buying music, since I could do it from home. If they had incorporated purchase capabilities into the Rokr, it would’ve eliminated the location barrier almost entirely. I’m positive I would have spent more money on iTunes if they hadn’t been so afraid of including this feature.
- You can’t use your iTunes as ringtones. Again, there’s no technological reasoning for this shortcoming. Speculation is that this was done to appease the mobile operators, who currently make a buttload of money off of their crappy ringtones.
You combine these things together, and what do you really have? Basically you have the exact same phone I have now, but with a really crappy iPod that I would never use built in.
Congratulations Apple and Motorola. You just lost a $249 sale. And it could’ve been $500. (Not to mention lost iTunes revenue…) Too bad. I was really looking forward to this.