The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2005–2006
Motorola ROKR E1: the iTunes phone Apple capped at 100 songs
The first iTunes phone, a Motorola-Apple 'ROKR', shipped in 2005 with a 100-song cap to protect the iPod — and was pulled within a year as a dud.
Motorola · 2005-09-07
What happened
On September 7 2005 Apple, Motorola and Cingular took the stage to announce the ROKR E1, the first phone with Apple's iTunes built in. The promise was simple: songs bought on the iTunes Music Store would play on a phone for the first time. It carried stereo speakers, an iPod-like player built by Apple, and a $249.99 price with a two-year contract.
The product was throttled by its own creators. The iTunes software capped the phone at 100 songs at a time — a limit widely read as protecting the iPod nano unveiled the same day — and transfer was slow, wired-only and clumsy. Critics nicknamed it 'the CROCKR,' called it 'evolutionary, not revolutionary,' and the launch did little to move sales.
Sales fell below expectations and the price was cut to about $150 within two months. Motorola's CEO Ed Zander would accuse Apple of undercutting the device, while Apple worried the phone would eat iPod sales. The ROKR was effectively withdrawn by late 2006 as Apple prepared its own iPhone.
Why it happened
- Apple capped the ROKR at 100 songs to protect the iPod nano, crippling the one feature — carrying your music library — that justified buying the phone at all.
- Motorola shipped a repackaged E398 with dated hardware and a numeric keypad, so the iTunes badge could not hide an unimpressive phone.
- The three partners' interests conflicted — Apple and Motorola each feared the other's product — so the phone was designed to under-sell rather than to win.
The lesson
A product built to protect another product will sell neither. The ROKR's 100-song cap guarded the iPod and made the phone pointless — protect the portfolio, not the feature.
Aftermath
The ROKR E1 was withdrawn as Apple moved toward the iPhone, which launched in 2007 and made the separate-music-phone category moot. Motorola later released the ROKR E2 without Apple.
Sources
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