Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » "Only a matter of time" before Apple builds a smart phone, Motorola's Zander says

September 30, 2005 | Comments: (0)

"Only a matter of time" before Apple builds a smart phone, Motorola's Zander says

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Despite its partnership with Motorola to deliver iTunes via Motorola's Rokr phone, Motorola CEO Ed Zander believes Apple's long-term plans may be to develop its own phone.

macworld.com laid out Zander's view of the partnership Friday, citing a CNET News.com interview with Zander from the day before.

Many industry analysts have said that Apple should develop its own smart phone, but Apple surprised much of the Macintosh community of users by partnering with Motorola instead, Macworld.com said. Nonetheless, Zander said Apple has other ambitions.

"And we know that they are going to build a smart phone - it's only a matter of time," said Zander.

The iTunes compatible Motorola Rokr was announced at a special event hosted by Apple in San Francisco, Calif. on September 7, 2005. However, since its introduction reviews of the device throughout the press have been mixed, Macworld.com said.

Earlier this week, Zander was reported to have made disparaging comments about Apple's iPod nano - comments some believed to be in response to frustration that the iPod nano upstaged the introduction of the Rokr.

"Screw the nano," said Zander. "What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs? People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks and savvy users," he said.

However, while not denying the comments were made, Motorola has said they were taken out of context.

"Motorola has a great partnership with Apple," said Motorola in a statement provided to MacCentral. "Unfortunately, Ed Zander's comments made at a conference in San Diego on Friday were taken out of context. During the Q&A session, one questioner repeatedly asked what Zander thought of the Nano. Jokingly, Zander said he wasn't there to talk about the Nano - but to talk about the next big thing happening in the industry - the fusion of the phone and music. ROKR with iTunes was a good beginning, he said, and there's more to come."

Posted by Jack McCarthy on September 30, 2005 02:03 PM

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