RSSMotorola iTunes Phone Not Selling Well
By Ed Oswald | Published October 24, 2005, 1:58 PM
Cingular is struggling to sell the much-hyped iTunes phone as data indicates return rates are as much as six times higher than launches for other new phones. However, Motorola is determined to fix the marketing issues and make the phone a success, CEO Ed Zander said in an interview with Bloomberg News Service.
News of high return rates is the latest setback for Motorola's ROKR, which received a cool reception at its launch and has been criticized for its non-Apple feel.
Zander said the problem could lie in the fact that the device is being marketed like an iPod, while the ROKR is more Motorola than it is a phone version of Apple's ubiquitous music player. "We may have missed the marketing message there," he acknowledged.
Pricing could also be an issue among consumers. The phone sells for $249.99 USD with a two-year contract for Cingular. While the ROKR adds the iTunes software, it can only store 100 songs. In comparison, a 4GB Nano can store ten times as many songs for the same price.
Motorola has put star power behind the ROKR, with commercials featuring Madonna, Little Richard and other musicians. However, even pop icons cannot seem to save the troubled phone, as compatibility problems with the iTunes software have tarnished customers' experiences.
According to data from American Technology Research, about 83,000 iTunes phones were sold per week from its launch September 7 until the end of the quarter. In comparison, the company's popular RAZR phone sold some 500,000 units per week.
Motorola says that United States reviewers were unfairly comparing the device to the iPod, which could have hurt sales. According to the company, the ROKR is selling much better overseas, where reviews have been less negative.
What about the headphones? The ones shipped with devices are invariably crap.
Mobile phone accessories have always cost stupidly high prices, and I don't think I want to be forced into buying a special set for the phone.
For example, a cable to connect my Nokia to a PC was going to cost £19. Of course, they put a weird non-standard socket on the phone so you have to buy the special thing that fits it. (btw Why won't a Nokia charger fit a Sony phone?)
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|Whoop dee doo. What audio capacities does a phone have anyway?
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|Another good point, the speakers in phones suck. Yes, you can buy a headset.. but for a good one they could easily be another hundred bucks.
For the casual jogger, I would have to say this device has merit. To those of us with MP3 players in the car, and have $2000 stereos at home and are true audiophiles, this device is a toy. I can burn a CD that holds more music than this thing, and I swap multiple CD's depending on mood. With this device, you are stuck with whatever paltry selection of songs you have..
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|big surprise!
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|So Madonna and Little Richard, those well-known gurus of mobile phones and mobile music devices, to whom we all look for a lead when considering purchasing new electronic gadgets, are promoting ROKR. And it's not selling well. Hmmm.
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|Did you see that they are also advertising over at The Podcast Network?
Read about it here:
http://mollyzine-podcasting.blogspot.com/2005/10/podcast-network-do-deal-with-motorala.html
Molly
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|And your point is? This point was not very informative there Molly Dud.
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|i put enough wear and tear on my cell as it is, that would triple if it held a few gigs of mp3/ogg. My phone would probably go from lasting 2-3 years to 1 year or less. I personally prefere 2 separate things.
It's similar buying a tv/vcr or a vcr/dvd built in one, as soon as one goes out, the other practically becomes useless, and at least our local repair shop will not fix these combo devices.
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|Ah the voice of reason.. Someone that knows the practical nature of a music player.
It will take someone that drops their phone, to realize this is a VERY bad idea... Its too many devices in one.
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|The ROKR's main problem is that it holds only 100 songs. if they were to put the nano's hardware and shrink it a little bit more it would be a hit even if the price were to go up to 450. People want to be able to carry more than 100 songs and they want their phones to be small. The idea is great, but it is not there yet. Maybe if apple were to make the hardware it would be a better phone.
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|The poor reviews have certainly hurt the sales of the ROKR. Working in wireless sales I have had a number of people that have asked about whether we have the "iTunes phone" because we don't have it on display and usually thought it was neat until I told them the price. Sticker shock usually ends any further consideration.
I can say having used it at work several times that it is a nice phone. It has a good speakerphone and a pretty good screen. The biggest barrier this thing has is the price. If this were selling for a $100 less I think these things would be selling like the RAZR.
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|As I said on here a month ago, the memory is just too little to be competitive. This phone is DOA - still. A phone that size should be able to carry what a nano can. Consider that you could slap a nano on the back of several phones, and it's still smaller, lighter, and lasts longer than this model.
It's not the idea; it's the hardware.
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|Umm.. not to point out the obvious, but its smaller, because its NOT A DAMN PHONE!!
A phone has a radio, antenna, and other circuitry that takes up just a lllleeeeettle more space.
A nano is a glorified 2.5" flash drive that happens to play music.
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|And here I was always under the impression that a phone was for talking to people and MP3 players were for listening to music...how silly of me.
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|yeah, cleary putting a camera in a phone was a terrible idea ... man what were they thinking?
and games in phones? there's no market for that, what another stupid idea.
oh and lets not forget pda like functions in a phone ... good lord what moron came up with that?
clearly people want to carry a phone, camera, psp, and a pda around at the same time.
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|$$$$ - Cha Ching! - Moolah.. that's what they were thinking..
I am glad to see I wasn't the only one that though a sub-mega pixel camera in a phone was a good idea, what are we in reverse? Polaroids had better resolution than that...
OH, wait you were being sarcastic...
We don't want to carry around different devices, but when a device CAN'T do what another device was designed for, and does it better, I question the value. Obviously including a camera, PDA, music, PSP, games, and data and make it affordable, is cutting corners, someplace. So its pushing the phone over its limit. Let's not forget the "morons" that are using these devices while they drive, because everything is on their damn phone... That's another discussion.
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|Gee, maybe because its a stupid idea. A phone is getting out of hand for devices, they are PDA's, messengers, text machines, email devices, and now music? Umm.. No.
It may have a chance if you can do more than 100 songs.. that's very limited. but in the long term this short term infatuation with devices that do everything is getting old quick. These types of devices are expensive, and not to mention very personal. If you lose your device, you just lost your contacts, emails, IM, and music.. There has to be a line drawn someplace.
I realized how much my phone is a crutch, and I don't use it for much. Other people virtually live on these things, and they go crazy if they can't find it in 5 minutes. Somewhere someone needs to separate devices, I drawn the line at music. That's going too far. They make plenty of devices that are true MP3s, do we really need one that double's as a phone?
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|those are good points but i disagree with your lose everything at once point.
i look at phones like these as things that bridge devices (pc, music, e-mail, etc.) ... it's not an end-all but something that links them together that i can carry around in my pocket. if i lose my phone, all my data is somewhere else as well.
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|hopefully this doesn't kill the drive to produce multimedia storing phones.
we want phones that let us store all of our music ... not just 100 songs.
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|Honestly,
I think they're just going to have to get their s*** together. Not many are going to get excited about a 256MB phone. It should be in the 1-4GB range for flash or 20-80 for HDs. I realize that some capacity may be lost in the melding of devices, due to space issues. After all the cameras lag far behind what a stand-alone device can do.
Motorola phones aren't exactly intuitive, they are the least obvious to use from what I've seen. IPods are some of the most intuitive MP3 players out there. I'm not surprised that the same customers were disapointed.
A difficult to use, low capacity, barely compatible forerunner is probably going to take a lot of heat. That doesn't mean that this isn't an obvious and necessary melding of two devices. Cameras and phones weren't a very good mix, because the electronics are very different. However, MP3 players and phones are quite similar and will complement each other well. Also I've always wanted a headset that plays into both ears (I know I can buy one, but all phones should come with one, laws be dammed, I don't hear out of only one ear).
Cheers,
Christian
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|I'm not suprised at all. i had a feeling this was going to flop. I thought the nano would have too. considering your getting ripped off. i was reading that people who are buying ROKR are returning it three time faster than people are buying them.
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