Apple forms alliance to download music to mobile telephones: expert

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Apple Computer has allied with Motorola and Cingular Wireless to provide a mobile telephone that, essentially, doubles as an iPod music player, an industry analyst said.

"You are marrying the most successful music player with a cell phone," Ovum analyst Roger Entner told AFP. "Apple has become, here again, an agent of change."

The firms have mated the popular iTunes service with Motorola hardware and Cingular's cellular network to to provide a mobile telephone with the capabilities of an iPod shuffle, Entner said.

"Now, you have a choice between talking to your spouse on the phone or listening to music," Entner said with a chuckle. "What are you going to do?"

The development is likely to frustrate recording industry companies...