Apple iTunes Mobile 1.0 arriving soon

[Colin Dunstan]

Here's a very cool development from Apple. Think Secret reports that iTunes Mobile 1.0, the first version of iTunes for mobile devices, is on track for release by June 2005. iTunes Mobile is a joint-venture product of Apple and Motorola. The required Motorola phone (yes you need one of these to take advantage of iTunes) is scheduled for release in the second-half of the year. The main problem until now was finding a mobile carrier who would be willing or capable of providing the iTunes service:

Cell phone companies, including Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint, are planning on rolling out music download services later this year, according to a recent BusinessWeek story, and want to charge $2 to $3 a song, justifying the premium over Apple's normal 99-cent price by the convenience of grabbing a tune whenever one pleases. Apple instead wants customers to copy purchased songs from their computer to the phone for playback, and does not favor direct purchases over a cell phone provider's network.