The verdict: The Motorola ROKR iTunes phone SUKS. Yes, it really does. And that raises a question. Let's get to the sucking part first, though. It's a fairly standard Motorola mobile phone (besides the iTunes feature, that is), which makes it 'okay' for fans of Motorola's mobile phone interface, but for people who have enjoyed better interfaces from SonyEricsson and Nokia, it just doesn't cut it. But even for Moto-lovers, there just isn't much to hype home about. Ah, yes, the iTunes feature. So now you've got a phone that can have a 100 songs on a 512 MB card (yes, that's a software restriction, 512 MB would hold more...) and bears an emulated (and ugly) representation of the iPod colour interface. The interface is slow, we hear. 0.7 to 1.0 seconds delay when you press a key. So it's neither a good mobile phone - merely average - nor a good MP3 player.
And now to the question this raises: Why, oh, why did Apple actually do this with Moto? It seems like one big (and ugly) mistake. This certainly doesn't help the iPod's image, and its effects on iTunes Music Store sales are probably neglectibe, too.
If *I* were in charge, the iTunes phone would be very similar, but different in two aspects: The phone would be free with a contract (not 249 USD with a two-year contract!) to get users to actually buy songs, and more than a year after announcing the plan, the interface of the iTunes software on the mobile phone wouldn't suck. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 11:50 [article link]