Cellular

Pop stars are falling over themselves to fill their pockets with corporate cash as the Apple/Motorola iTunes phone promotion machine switches into overdrive.

Motorola has already waved their weighty wad in the direction of Madonna, Iggy Pop and a host of other music stars who have all been sufficiently tempted to associate their faces with the iTunes phone.

An article on the Marketing news Website Brand Republic reports that: “Motorola has signed an artist from every generation to appear in the ads, including Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, Lil’ John, The White Stripes, Sleater-Kinney, Sum 41, Mya, Pussycat Dolls and Billie Joe from Green Day.”

The company are still negotiating with Alanis Morissette and The Bravery.

Serious underground tremors are expected around Jimi Hendrix’s burial site as the rock legend will no doubt reach maximum graveyard revolutions on the news that a look-a-like has been booked to perform in the ads.

Apparently, all the pop stars will be seen singing in a phone box in the adverts.

The Brand Republic article goes on to say that, “The ads may debut from next week, at the same time the Motorola phone with iPod personal music system is launched.”

The iTunes-supporting phone is rumoured to be called the Motorola Rokr and will be made available in two models offering 512MB or 1GB of storage.

The ‘iPhone’ is expected to be announced by Apple at a press conference on 7th September.

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iTunes

After enjoying huge success with the iPod, mini iPod and photo iPod, Apple are looking to score another hit with consumers with the expected announcement of the iPhone, a music playing mobile phone.

Speculation about the new product has been running rife after Apple announced a mystery San Francisco launch scheduled for next Wednesday with the teasing statement, “1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.”

Pundits are predicting that Steve Jobs’ outfit will finally be launching their much-delayed music-playing mobile in partnership with handset giants Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

The New York Times reported that Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with research firm Ovum, had been briefed on the new phone and that it would be compatible with Apple’s iTunes software, declaring it “a deluxe music player now on your cellphone.”

The phone has taken longer than a one legged sloth to arrive, with the project dogged by delays while rivals Sony Ericsson and Nokia have gained ground with their own music-playing models handsets – Sony Ericsson’s recently launched W800i phone has already proved a hit and Nokia’s 1,000 song-capacity N series will be in shops by the end of the year.

Despite arriving late at the party, Apple are hopeful that the iPod brand will successfully translate into big sales amongst the world’s estimated 1 billion mobile phone users.

Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst with Jupiter Research, had some doubts: “It’s been awaited for a year, if not more. That means people might be disappointed, because I don’t think it will be much more than a phone that can play music – and there are already others on the market that can do that. But iTunes and iPod are quite famous now in the music space, and they will be hoping for leverage.”

Some analysts have also expressed concerns that the iPhone might cannibalise Apple’s own market and cut into sales of their low end players, while others suspect that mobile phone networks might refuse to carry the phone to protect their own music download services.

With Motorola’s history of announcing new products months ahead of launch and Apple’s traditional penchant for headline-grabbing, last-minute announcements, the launch might be an interesting one.

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