Motorola’s Zander has harsh words for nano

Posted on September 25th, 2005 by darkmoon

Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola, was annoyed that the iPod nano stole the spotlight of the event when the ROKR phone came out.

“Screw the nano. What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?” Zander said. People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks and savvy users, he said.

Here’s the thing, Mr. Zander. In my opinion, Apple doesn’t like their products released ahead of schedule. The ROKR was pre-determined and leaked at multiple events. By the time it was to be released, it was old news. Hammering on a partner’s product lines is not really going to get you anywhere with that partner. Next time, release when the product is due, fire those that leak the images and make sure you follow suit with someone that does do their marketing piece especially well. You might learn from that, since your PR folks still don’t have what Apple does.

ForeverGeek < Infoworld

Tags: Business // 6 Comments »

  • “People are going to want devices that do more than just play music” … yet the iPod mini was the best selling mp3 player, with a simple design and no “extras” like an FM tuner. Another example of someone who just doesn’t get it. Personally, I’m not sure why anyone would want to use their cell phone as a music player.

  • “People are going to want devices that do more than just play music” … yet the iPod mini was the best selling mp3 player, with a simple design and no “extras” like an FM tuner. Another example of someone who just doesn’t get it. Personally, I’m not sure why anyone would want to use their cell phone as a music player.

  • I don’t either, although the ROKR was a good product line. They just blew it by leaking news of it too early.
    Actually, yes I do. Dan Gillmor actually likes the whole cell phone + music player thing. I believe he uses his Treo for it. I keep mine separate mainly because there is no way I’m sharing my cell battery life with something like a music player.

  • I don’t either, although the ROKR was a good product line. They just blew it by leaking news of it too early.
    Actually, yes I do. Dan Gillmor actually likes the whole cell phone + music player thing. I believe he uses his Treo for it. I keep mine separate mainly because there is no way I’m sharing my cell battery life with something like a music player.

  • “there is no way I’m sharing my cell battery life with something like a music player”
    Exactly… that’s basically what a friend of mine said. If you ever need your cell phone, for an emergency or otherwise, you don’t want the battery to be dead because you were playing music on it.

  • “there is no way I’m sharing my cell battery life with something like a music player”
    Exactly… that’s basically what a friend of mine said. If you ever need your cell phone, for an emergency or otherwise, you don’t want the battery to be dead because you were playing music on it.

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