New iTunes Phone Still Lacking

RED HERRING covers the launch of the new Motorola Slvr phone that "unites Apple’s iTunes digital music service with the thin design popularized by Motorola’s RAZR line of phones." The phone will be offered by Cingular and "includes 512 megabytes of memory on a MicroSD card that holds up to seven hours of music, or about 100 songs."

The 100 song limit doesn't seem to be a big hit with analysts, such as Ed Snyder at Charter Equity Research. Concurring with that opinion were Albert Lin and Neal Amodio at American Technology Research. They wrote, "We believe that the 100-song limit makes this offer less interesting. Total song capacity based on the memory in the phone is not much higher, so the product will likely be of no impact to incremental sales. When and if storage increases, many users’ attraction to it will grow."

Motorola also released the new Peblhandset on T-mobile. Bill Choi and SooAnn Roberts at Kaufman Bros. Equity Research said, "We believe PEBL and SLVR are critical products to boost Motorola’s handset operating margins beyond 11 percent reported last quarter."

It obviously depends on the usage model, but I don't understand why people are getting so bent out of shape about a handset with a 100 song limit. That still at least 5+ hours of music. Unless you want to use your handset primarily as a music player, 100 songs should be more than enough. It didn't seem to hurt the Apple iPod Shuffle...