Motorola and Apple have announced a mobile iTunes music player that will allow Motorola’s upcoming ‘always with you’ handsets to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Although the number of songs will be limited to the flash memory storage space inside the phones, most units should be able to hold a few dozen songs, at least, making them the missing piece in Apple’s music playback device plan. iPod and iPod mini for those that want a dedicated, large-capacity music device; iTunes phones for those who just need a few songs here and there.
When the service launches in the first half of 2005, songs will be transferred from PCs to phones via the standard USB or Bluetooth interfaces, but hopefully later versions of iTunes Mobile will be able to download over the airwaves. And does this mean that Motorola has decided MP3s are the ringtones of the future? That’s going to make some people (read: carriers) a little pissy, especially considering an iTunes download is cheaper than most ringtones.
Read – Press Release [Motorola]
Read – Apple, Motorola to bring iTunes to cell phones [MacCentral]
Read – Apple tunes for Motorola phones [Money.CNN]
Read – Apple to Make Music Player for Motorola Phones [Reuters]
