I already was not very excited about the ROKR iTunes mobile phone, when Apple and Motorola revealed it on Wednesday.

LaptopMag was at the Motorola Launch Event in New York and had the chance to play around with the ROKR E1.
They are also not amazed about the ROKR E1. The design is not in the same league as the RAZR, it is disappointingly plain. The 100 song limitation is another big downer.
Quote:
"The phone's 512MB TransFlash memory card will certainly be upgradeable to 1GB once that capacity becomes available, but you won't be able to play those extra songs through the phone's iTunes interface."
Read the full report on Laptopmag. The ROKR E1 sells on Amazon.com for $99.99.


So what does that tell us? On the one hand we know that Motorola can design cool phones (see the RAZR) on the other hand they come out with a backward phone design for the iTunes mobile phone. On the other hand we have Apple protecting its iPod line by limiting the number of songs consumers can play from the ROKR E1. The result is a lame product, that in my opinion should not be sold once.

The best solution for consumers is that Apple is going to build finally their own music mobile phone (iPhone). It will be ultra-cool like the iPod nano and because it generates sales for Apple it can handle more than 100 songs.

See also:
TMCNet: Merill Lynch Disses ROKR
VNUNet: Critics slam iTunes phone
Engadget: Ask questions about the ROKR
Mobiledia: Motorola ROKR E1 Review

Buy the ROKR E1 for $99.99 on Amazon.com.