Switched On: The Moto MEDIOKR

Ross Rubin at NPD writes an amusing piece on the Motorola Rokr for his regular Switched On column at Engadget. Rubin dubs the music phone the MEDIOKR, and notes the biggest surprise is why "anyone was surprised at how disappointing it was." Based on three different perspectives - launch, development and market dynamics - Rubin writes people "should have seen that this ROKR was going to hit the rocks for a variety of reasons."

I won't go into the specifics, but here is Rubin's conclusion:

Cingular’s marketing slogan, the ROKR has not raised the bar, but it has raised the profile of music phones. Music features will continue to factor far down the priority list of how consumers choose their mobile phones. However, should customers embrace the playback capabilities that marginal component costs will soon make a standard feature of their handsets, Apple will need to take a more active role if it wants to preserve the portable digital music experience it has executed so well.