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Cellphone NewsCingular Slashes ROKR iTunes Phone PriceNov. 9, 2005 The Motorola ROKR is the only mobile phone that plays music purchased in Apple's iTunes Music Store. Cingular at the time was so confident that the software would create a large appeal for the handset. It started selling the device without any subsidy, Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer at Cingular, said in September. The U.S. mobile operator Cingular has lowered the price of the Motorola ROKR, better know as the iTunes mobile telephone, by 40 percent. When the phone was initially introduced, Cingular started selling it for $249.99 with a two year contract. Over the past weekend the operator cut the price by $100 to $149.99. The Motorola ROKR is the only mobile phone that plays music purchased in Apple's iTunes Music Store. Cingular at the time was so confident that the software would create a large appeal for the handset. It started selling the device without any subsidy, Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer at Cingular, said in September. The $250 price tag combined with a storage capacity that is artificially capped off at 100 songs caused consumers and reviewers to shun the phone. Motorola sold about 83,000 ROKR phones per week in the fist weeks after the official unveiling. The firm's top selling RAZR on average sells 500,000 units per week. Meanwhile one analyst reported that return rates for the ROKR are six times higher than is common for a mobile phone. Many consumers complained that they had trouble synchronizing the devices with their computers. Both Apple and Motorola have admitted that the ROKR has been a failure. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs called the phone "a way to put our toe in the water and learn something." Motorola's chief Ed Zander in October said that he was disappointed and planed to fix the ROKR's marketing. Motorola is currently running a worldwide advertising campaign for the ROKR. The TV commercials featuring Madonna ends with the tagline: "A hundred tunes in your phone, baby." But as a music playing device the ROKR disappointed with the 100 song cap and its price tag. Both the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano offer more storage capacity at a lower or equal price. Meanwhile Motorola hasn't given up on iTunes software on its mobile phones. The forthcoming RAZR v3i is expected to be the second Motorola model to feature that Apple software, although it will be up to the operator to decide if the phone will include the software or not. The new RAZR is scheduled to start shipping later this year. |
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