Did Apple Sabotage the ROKR? 502
JPigford writes "The Apple Blog makes claim that Apple sabotaged the success of the ROKR so as to sway public opinion of MP3 cell phones in general...ultimately to drive more sales to the iPod. By mandating a 100 song limit on the ROKR and having the product flop, Apple was able to put a bad taste in the mouths of consumers so that not only do they drive more iPod sales, but they keep competitors from fighting back with their own MP3 phones."
Not true... (Score:2, Interesting)
I liked the initial idea of an iPod phone (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up. (Score:2, Interesting)
HP iPod? Dead
Apple ][ Clones?
Mac Clones?
Apple likes to be the only source..it's more profitable that way.
Perhaps the RAZR V3i should have been first (Score:2, Interesting)
100 song limit (Score:5, Interesting)
The SanDisk Transflash drive in the phone is removable and replaceable. There is nothing stopping a ROKR owner from replacing the 512M drive with a much larger one (such as the 1G version). Therefore it makes perfect since to put an artificial limit on the number of songs. The USB 1.1 transfer rates are likely a factor as well.
I own one, and use iTunes on a nearly daily basis on public transportation to and from work. It's much more discrete than carrying around an iPod (two of which I also own) and is something I have to have in my pocket anyway. The 100 song limit doesn't bother me so much, and I refill it about once a week so the transfer rates, while annoying, are tolerable.
And yes, the phone's interface is a bit clunky, but I find most cell phones suffer from this affliction. My biggest gripe is what appears to be a lack of processing power. The command response borders on dreadful. A more complete j2me environment would have been helpful as well, but that's generally an issue with Motorola.
Re:It's probably true (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course it isn't - if you're leveraging Apple's stuff, then prepare for them to protect their own best interests as well. However the idea that they were trying to sour consumers on the idea of integrated devices sounds a little bit ridiculous (though it earned that terribly-heavyweight site lots of views) - Consumers don't have such a disconnect between devices, and a good MP3 player, whether a part of a cellphone, a PDA, or a stand-alone, is a good MP3 player, and the bad ones are bad ones. Indeed, there are a lot of terrible stand-alone MP3 players by shoddy companies, but I'd hardly say that it "soured the market" such that the iPod couldn't happen. It sounds more likely that Apple wanted to limit how much the specific device ate into their own sales - all of the advantages of the iPod, but with a couple of limitations. It says or predicts nothinga bout competing devices.
Personally I think the time is long overdue for good integrated cell/pda/mp3 players. MP3 playing in particular is so trivial that it's absurd that we have such powerful electronics that we lug around, but they can't credibly and easily play mp3s. Usually the implementation is ridiculously short sighted (I got a PDA to double as an MP3 player, and everything worked great but the DAC was terribly low quality. A couple of cents and they destroyed that entire use).
No, the US cellular system sabotoged the iPhone (Score:1, Interesting)
If Apple had their way and they got to design the whole phone, no carrier would take it, because of its customer centric nature. That's how the iPod wins, that's how an iPhone would win. The limit was a warning: "this thing isn't a good idea." Is it a good business move to indicate that you can replace your iPod with a ROKR when the latter has none of your signature features? I would think not. That's a good way to get people to associate the ROKR as a crap phone with Apple
So, if "sabotage" means "de-emphasize" in this guy's vocabulary, then I'd agree. But sabotage means "deliberately destroy," something Apple could have done by just not making such a phone. The ROKR is a statement of "look, we tried to make an iPhone, and because of the rules, the result isn't good. We don't think it's great, but we know some of you want it."
Re:It's probably true (Score:5, Interesting)
I want specialized devices, not a "jack of all trades, master of none" device and I don't think I am alone in this. So I think to say that a "good integrated cell/pda/mp3 player" is long overdue just isn't true.
Re:It's probably true (Score:5, Interesting)
This line gets dragged out everytime this gets brought up, yet already our electronics have seen integration, and it is only going to continue - indeed accelerate. There is a point in PDAs, MP3 players, and cell phones, where it is good enough to completely satsify the majority of consumers - it is, in effect, a master of the realm if it satisfies the consumer, even if a specialized high-end stand-alone unit lets them add irrelevant effects to their music. I love my Digital Rebel XT, yet there are a lot of people for whom the digital camera in their cell phone is more than adequate (with extreme portability to boot).
My cell phone already has a pretty powerful processor in it, a good colour screen, a very capable data entry/navigation system, it's tiny, and has a fantastic battery. Flash memory is getting ultra cheap, so it's obvious that cell phones are increasibly going to integrate MP3 players (and FM radios), and even video and PDA functionality (of course you could say that PDAs are integrating cell phones - it's all the same thing). Why should I carry three different devices - all of them powered by general purpose CPUs (often the SAME CPU) just running different software, with a slightly different form?
Re:Does everything have to be a conspiracy? (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm sick and fucking tired of people talking like terrorism is just a force of nature like a hurricane or a tsunami, like it's inevitable, like the only way to deal with it is to put plastic over your windows and hope for the best.
What are we, monkeys? (Score:3, Interesting)
For fuck's sake, it's not rocket science. sheesh
Re:Doesn't add up. (Score:3, Interesting)
Phone/text functionality
Web browsing functionality
Portable hard disk/flash memory
Music player
Contacts list
Calendar
Task list
Email functionality
Note-keeping functionality.
Plus everything needs to be able to sync with my PC quickly and easily, along with sharing information like contact details. There is nothing which does all these to the quality I need. Yes, my phone happens to have a calendar and some music functionality. Yes, my iPod can store my tasks. If I push it my PDA can make phone calls. But all I want is one item, with one battery, and all those functions.
Only when something does all that in a single form (It can be as big as a 60gb iPod for all I care) will I accept other features, such as automatic song lookup. If it could grab net access from open hotspots and use that to send/retrieve emails and connect to my Skype account when possible, so much the better.
Don't blame Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple did not sabotage this phone. That was done by the terrible twosome that is Motorola and Cingular.
First of all, the ROKR is (f)ugly. Had Motorola made their first iTunes phone a RAZR (which they are finally bringing to market for Q4 2005), it would've been a slam dunk. Consumers want the RAZR and adding iTunes functionality (as well as decent sized memory) only would drive up demand further. That was not Apple's fault, but Motorola's for acting greedy and assuming they could sucker in early-adopters to buy the crummy phone just for iTunes and then later get them to double-dip into purchasing an iTunes compatible RAZR model.
Then there's Cingular. Cingular would not allow the phone to use iTunes purchased tracks as ringtones. Wow, that was brilliant. Because all of us that actually have purchased tracks through iTunes would be stupid enough to pay twice the price on the same song cut in half just for the sheer pleasure of using it as a ringtone. That must be another brilliant idea dreamed up by that genius at SBC named Ed Whiteacre for sure.
There's something that would be painful to watch....a match of wits between Ed Whiteacre and Edgar Bronfman. In a version of Thunderdome hosted by the EFF.
Re:It's probably true (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's probably true (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh, give me a break. (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple took a risk by associating the iTunes branding with another company's cell phone. The phone didn't end up being a big seller -- perhaps because of the 512MB/100 song limit, or because it was bad timing for such a product, or because the market is already saturated with cell phones at $0 down that locks customers into a 2+ year contract.
Why in the world would Apple associate its brand name with an intentional flop? If they really wanted it to fail, they would have let someone else take the risk. It makes no sense to sully your own name... When was the last time that you bought a brand name device when you had already had bad experiences with something of the same brand name? Despite the fact that they were totally different devices, like a portable CD player and a TV, for example.
Additionally, the idea that Apple was trying to sour consumers on the idea of integrated devices seems particularily silly. The iPod itself is an integrated deivce, and becomes more so with every new version. First it just played music. Then it showed pictures. Now you can get ones that also play video. Why in the world would Apply try to convince people not to buy iPods? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot -- on purpose!
New Coke (Score:1, Interesting)
This conspiracy theory is conveniently reminiscent of New Coke [wikipedia.org], a theory Coke laughed off by saying, "We're not that dumb, and we're not that smart."
Re:And the last thing in the world that would... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll bet you feel like an idiot now [google.com]
Re:It's probably true (Score:1, Interesting)