Cingular slashes iTunes phone price

Motorola Rokr failed as a phone and as a music player

US mobile operator Cingular has lowered the price of the Motorola Rokr, better known as the iTunes mobile telephone, by 40 per cent. 

Cingular started selling the phone for $249.99 with a two-year contract, but has cut the price by $100 to $149.99.

The Motorola Rokr is the only mobile phone that plays music purchased in Apple's iTunes music store.

Cingular was very confident at the time of the introduction that the iTunes software would create a large appeal for the handset. It started selling the device without any subsidy, Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer at Cingular, told vnunet.com in September. 

The $250 price tag, combined with a storage capacity which is artificially capped at 100 songs, caused consumers and reviewers to shun the phone.

Both the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano offer more storage capacity at a lower or equal price. In the UK O2 offers the phone for free with a 12-month contract. 

Motorola sold about 83,000 Rokr phones a week in the first weeks after the official unveiling. The firm's top selling Razr sells 500,000 units a week.

Meanwhile one analyst reported that return rates for the Rokr are six times higher than is common for current mobile phones. Many consumers complained that they had trouble synchronising the devices with their computers.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs referred to the phone "a way to put our toe in the water and learn something". Motorola chief Ed Zander said in October that he was disappointed by the phone's marketing.

Motorola is currently running a worldwide advertising campaign for the Rokr. The TV commercials, which feature Madonna, end with the tagline: "100 tunes in your phone, baby."

A spokesman for Cingular told vnunet.com that the price decrease was a response to the forthcoming holiday season. He called the phone a "terrific product" and denied that the low sales figures had anything to do with the pricing.

Motorola has not given up on including iTunes software on its mobile phones. The forthcoming Razr v3i is scheduled to be the second Motorola model to feature the Apple software, although it will be up to the operators to decide whether to include the software. The Razr is scheduled to start shipping later this year. 

• Gizmodo: iTunes on the RAZR V3i