Motorola sharpens Razr for Apple iTunes

Motorola is scheduled to ship a new model of its Razr mobile phone equipped with Apple's iTunes music software later this year. 

The move marries Motorola's top selling mobile phone with the iTunes software, and aims to bring the phone maker the success that its Rokr handset has so far failed to generate.

The Razr v3i features a 1.23-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom as well as expandable memory.

Similar to the Rokr, the new handset ships with a stereo headset and has an 'airplane mode' that shuts down the wireless radio to allow the phone to be used on airplanes for games and music.

Support for Apple's iTunes is optional, and it will be up to the mobile operator to choose between a phone with or without the media player.

Motorola and Apple unveiled the first iTunes mobile phone last September, the Rokr E1.

The Rokr artificially caps the number of songs it holds at 100, regardless of the available storage capacity. It is not yet determined whether the Razr will have similar limitations, Motorola spokesperson John Wernecke told vnunet.com. 

The limit is imposed by Apple's software and it would be up to Apple to change or remove the cap, according to Wernecke. Any modification of the cap would require Apple to develop a new version of the client software.

"That is something that we would announce as we get closer to availability," said Wernecke.

The song cap is believed to be one of the reasons for the failure of the Motorola Rokr, because it was outshined by the iPod as a music playing device.

The device was also more expensive in the US, with an introductory price of $249 with a two-year contract through Cingular. The operator has only recently reduced the price.

In the UK the Rokr is available free of charge with a one-year contract through O2.

Motorola sold 250,000 Rokr phones in its most recent financial quarter. The Razr has notched up sales of 6.5 million so far, and ranks as the top selling mobile phone in the US. 

• The Razr: the first mobile phone with iTunes

Motorola Razr leads US mobile phone boom

Design success helps Motorola to the top  27 Oct 2005

Motorola Rokr E1

A mobile phone that thinks it’s an iPod  10 Oct 2005

Nice idea, shame about the product

Recent slumps in standard PDA sales show that there is a chasm between clever concepts and products that users actually want  08 Aug 2005

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