Nov. 8, 2006

A Cingular spokesperson said that the new Motorola Razr V3 “R” phones have been shipped to Cingular Wireless stores and are equipped with MP3 capabilities, but not Apple Computer’s iTunes platform.

“This would be in line with our strategy of providing consumers with many different ways to listen to music, including iTunes, Napster, Yahoo, emusic, MobiRadio and XM Radio,” said Clay Owen, a spokesman at Cingular.

Motorola did not immediately respond to a question on whether its relationship with Apple for the iTunes service had changed.

Motorola sells a variety of Razr derivatives, and earlier this year introduced an iTunes-capable Razr with Cingular. Cingular is still selling the iTunes-capable Razr, as well as older Razr versions that do not including any music capabilities.

Cingular's Owen said the carrier plans to offer the iTunes-capable Razr alongside the non-iTunes version.

Industry observers have been watching Motorola’s music phone launches at Cingular for signs of its relationship with Apple.

When Cingular launched Motorola’s Rokr phone last year with iTunes, the music service was limited to holding only 100 songs at one time to avoid undermining Apple’s sales of its own iPod music player.

The day that Motorola unveiled the Rokr, Apple released its new iPod Nano device—relegating Motorola’s announcement to “me too” status, in some observers’ view, and raising questions about the nature of the companies’ relationship.

The Cingular/Motorola connection has been Apple’s only iTunes-branded foray into the cellular space, though rumors continue to swirl that the computer maker is planning to launch its own branded wireless device.

Source: RCR News