iPhone iPod Plus

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chairman, and Ed Zander, Motorola Premier will launch the iPhone Tuesday, the first mobile phone to incorporate the legal download service iTunes music.

The aircraft will be based on the Motorola E398, ivory white in color like the first iPod, and give access to a simplified version of iTunes. It should initially be equipped with a removable memory of 512 MB can store hundreds of songs and can be connected to a stereo, computer or car.

The device will be marketed from July 4 to the United States by one operator, Cingular. Its subscribers can directly download music from Apple’s iTunes site. A shadow remains on the board: the price of service. Indeed, if Apple sells music at 99 cents per song, operators usually charge for this service 2 or 3 euros! The agreement with Apple is therefore likely to seriously reduce their margins …

In France, no operator wants to now open its network to the iPhone. SFR has already allied with NRJ to offer a similar service Orange has signed with Warner and Bouygues Telecom has partnered with Universal.

The launch of the iPhone has been delayed: the first announcement date of July 2004. Apple and Motorola have taken their time to perfect their system of protection of copyright. Nobody knows yet whether the copy songs directly from the computer to the iPhone will be possible. The two companies may well have limited this functionality to ensure that users do not use the download service charges.

The launch of the iPhone and services for downloading music on telephones represent a threat to manufacturers of music players. At first rand which we find … the Apple iPod.

(Atelier BNP Paribas – 27/06/2005)