iTunes phone next week?

[Chaos]

The Register is reporting that there's a possibility of an iPod phone next week. The much-rumoured iTunes/iPod phone has been much discussed over the past few months, including reports that it would be released in August (which, since August is over, evidently were false - there's, as always, a possibility that this isn't true either - but it looks more promising).

It's been an open secret for a while now that Apple wasn't going to let Sony Ericsson's "Walkman phone" become a market leader in the new market for a combined music/comms toy. Word on the street says that the new phone/player will be announced next week, Sept 7th.

Particularly interesting is The Register's analysis of the iTunes/iPod phone possibilities, including a rather sharp critique of the current music-playing phones, and their ease-of-use factor (or lack thereof), which the iPod is currently renowned for.

Not to put too fine a point on it, what makes the iPod different from other music players isn't the cool design; it's that clever navigation "wheel" plus (maybe less crucial) the big storage capacity.

Neither is possible in a phone.

[Get] any of the new generation of MP3-playing phones, and see how "easy" it is to find a particular music track. Hint: don't try this while driving. You will hit a tree.

[doctorow]

There were rumors that the "iPod"-phone would only work with a very limited number of stored MP3 files. An attempt by Apple to avoid cannibalizing its iPod player.