Originally found in this long list of comments:
Apple will be releasing a phone with motorola soon that will incorporate iTunes within it. For all the iPod/PMP3P user out there that want an mp3 player/phone will most likely go this route. iTunes is still the best music service and if it syncs with it, I can’t see anyone not want to go with this phone. Branding goes a long way with Apple.
Apple has been specualted for releasing their own phone. Something feature rich, but only specualtion.
Why did you bring Microsoft into it? As Jared said they most likely will not go into this type of thing since they are motivated for office use. Windows Mobile is very clucky and not easy to use, as Jared said its Pocket Pc for a phone and the only reason they have sold any is because origianlly those phones were the only phones to sync with their own exchange server. Exchange rulls the corporate world and I would assume that microsoft say the need for cell users to sync there data with thier phone, that is why we see the smart phone, not because people wanted a phone and a PocketPC in one. how could I speculate this? because the ealry smart phones advertised this to the extreme and they didn’t have querty keypads or touch screens to enter data. Although recently this has changed with Microsoft exchange allowing the Treo 650 to sync with the exchange server 2003, I don’t know who or how they got that going but they, I think, are the only phones that sync nativily (out of the box) with exchange.
I will not tell you how popular exchange is or what it even does you will have to look that up. But alsmot every large company uses it, at least of what I have been exposed to.
So, to make it short. Microsoft will not have a simple MP3/phone, never, they do not have the need to do so. 1. They fasion to the business folks not the hipsters 2. They dont have the drive to do so either since they no longer have a music service (that is noticable).
Apple will release a MP3/phone, this year. It will sell to the hipsters and be a good cool gadget that will sell but will not revolutionize shi…crap.
In the next two years there will most likely be three types of phones/devices.
1. Treo/Smart Phone
2. small little phone that does nothing except call and recieve; small like the iPod shuffle
3. The hybrid. A good camera/phone. A good mp3 player/phone. A good handheld gaming device/phone. I do not think anyone will pull off the ultimate phone that does all of this in one, not saying noone will try but it will flop just like every other all in one out there to date.
