The Tech Rumour Mill: Apple Working on Creating its Own iPod-iTunes Cellphone

Digital Journal — Apple Computer is gearing up to enter the cellphone market with a handset with built-in iPod and iTunes software. Teaming up with Japanese Telco Softbank, a report from Nihon Keizei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, says Apple could be developing a new phone that can download songs from the company’s popular iTunes service. Last year, the Motorola ROKR was released which allowed users to download iTunes songs to a PC and they sync the phone to transfer songs. In a Reuters interpretation of the Japanese report, the Softbank-Apple phone would be the first mobile phone to allow users to download songs over the air (no PC sync required). Wireless networks in Japan are incredibly fast compared to North American networks, and the Japanese often use cell phones for things such as buying food from vending machines. In the United States, Verizon’s V-Cast music download service for mobile phones is the only wireless music downloading phone, but it doesn’t use iTunes. For a long time now, industry insiders (including Motorola CEO Ed Zander) believe it is only a matter of time until Apple launches its own cell phone design. The upcoming “iPhone” (or whatever it ends up being called) has yet to materialize, and Apple has not confirmed any reports.