The chief executive of mobile phone maker Motorola has denied reports that cellular phone makers are skeptical of selling a portable phone that can also download and play music from a service similar to Appleis iTunes Music Store (iTMS), a published report said late Wednesday.
"There is no resistance on anybodyis part," Motorola CEO Mr. Zander said Tuesday at a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "I donit know where these rumors got started...When we did this deal last year, we knew exactly what carriers were interested in."
Mr. Zander, 58, said Tuesday he had a Rokr, iTunes-ready phone with him, but declined to show it to reporters. iiI love it,ii he said. iiIive been playing with it for the last week or two.ii
Mr. Zander refused to elaborate on what issues there have been between the parties or why the products release has been delayed . He said the phone will be out in "a couple of more months," reiterating comments he made April 20.
Reports in March said there were issues between Motorola, Apple and cellular companies like O2, Cingular and Sprint, who wanted a bigger stake and more say in the rollout of music-ready mobile phones.
"Motorola discussed the logistics of this product with our carriers across the globe and we decided to wait to announce it when everybody is in sync with it," Motorola spokeswoman Monica Rohleder said in March.
Industry watchers say its all about money and control for the wireless carriers, who want to make sure they get their take of revenue from the phone and the service.
At the heart of the problem is the way the technology works. Although the iTunes-ready phone can store and play songs, it does not download music over the carriers network. Instead, a user would capture music files via a Bluetooth connection to a personal computer that has Appleis iTunes software on it and a connection to the Internet.
By not downloading music through a mobile phone call to a Internet connection such as America Online, the carrier is pushed out of the equation and is denied the chance to make more money from its subscriber.
"That is where the whole problem lies," Jon Gales, president and chief correspondent for the mobile phone news site MobileTracker.net told The Mac Observer. "Carriers have spent a ton of money building up their data networks and they want people to buy music, just like they buy ring tones, weather forecasts and news now. They donit want people to put music on their phones unless they can make some money out of it. Itis just that simple."
Mr. Gales said a prime example of a carrier wanting to force its customers to spend more money is the recent crippling of the Bluetooth capabilities on Verizon Wireless phones.
"Verizon Wireless has taken a lot of heat lately for making it so that you can only use Bluetooth on its phones with a wireless headset," he said. "You canit use it to transfer data, say from a Mac. Theyire doing that to force you to download stuff over their data network so they can make more money."
Mr. Gales said its difficult to determine exactly what the carriers want if they know they canit make any more money on music downloads.
"Itis difficult to figure out what it is they really want," he commented. "They make money when they get new customers and sell you a phone, but obviously they want more...I canit see a way around this, based on how the technology works."
Mr. Gales commented that Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs has been adamant that consumers have a right to buy their music from wherever they want to and play it on whatever device they would like without having to pay more.
"(Mr.) Jobs says itis all about choice, but the carriers are saying they want to offer choice and make some money too. Itis going to be interesting how they work this out," Mr. Gales said.