It would seem logical that if Apple can sell an iPod shuffle for $99 that you should be able to use your cellphone to play mp3s as well. Motorola and Apple decided to do just that and designed a iPod-like phone that could purchase tracks from the iTunes Music Store and hold about 100 tracks on the phone. While this new phone using wireless technology seems like the next logical step a large obstacle suddenly appeared:
Motorola had previewed the iTunes phone to the media earlier this week, with the intent of publicly announcing it Thursday. Then the company got a last-minute message from a wireless carrier or carriers, and indefinitely postponed the announcement--a highly unusual occurrence.
To make a long story short: electronics manufacturers who make phones are way ahead of the curve. You have probably noticed that people in Asia and Europe always have newer and cooler phones than us dinosaurs here in the USA. The reason for this is quite simple:
Why would a wireless carrier have such sway with the world’s second-largest cell phone-maker? Because of the unique structure of the industry: Wireless carriers--particularly in the U.S.--buy phones and then often subsidize their cost to consumers.
You see, we in America are cheapskates (nothing wrong with that, its all part of capitalism) but unfortunately this gives all the power to the carriers. And now the wireless carriers are each fighting for their own little piece of the wireless pie. Unlike the rest of planet Earth, we do not have a single wireless cellphone standard in the USA. The carriers see the trends towards eventually being stearmrolled into being dumb pipes and are doing everything in their power to prevent this from happening.
Remember “wireless internet” from five years ago? The carriers have always preferred the “walled garden” approach. Word on the street about the mysterious late-night phone call: the carriers have been impressed with the sales of ringtones so they decided that they should start their own music stores and it would be silly if they had to compete with market-leading Apple. Don’t you just hate progress?
