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When the ROKR was released, a friend asked my opinion and most likely got an answer a bit longer and closer to a rant than he expected. (I think I have sent him quite a few ranting email replies that wished they were posts on this blog, this one is the first one to have its dream come true.) I have reprinted my reply below, edited (noted by brackets) for clarity, to protect the innocent and to remove naughty words.

On 9/7/05, [innocent] <[innocent@domain.tld]> wrote:
>Thoughts on the Motorola ROKR?
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no good thoughts on it.

Apple will have to make a mobile soon, otherwise Quicktime is doomed. They are riding the iPod wave for all it is worth first, slowly bumping up to the next step long after they could have, only progressing when sales demand it.

And when they release a phone, if the ROKR is still around, it [the ROKR] will become even sillier than it is now.

I have a 1GB mini-SD in my [Audiovox SMT-5600] mobile. It supports WinMedia DRM10 so all the subscription music services (napster, rhapsody, yahoo, etc) work with it, except I have TONS more music for the cost of a couple/few downloads from iTunes per month. And my mobile holds 2x or 4x what the ROKR will hold, depending on the model.

The phone has nothing to do with iTunes, iPod, or Apple and doesn't benefit from the things that makes those products popular: simple designs for simple people. I see nothing but disapointment when everyone realizes everything about the phone will contrast so badly with what iTunes users expect.

As the guy said at that much-repeated lecture a few months ago, most people in the room have an iPod but almost none have it in their pocket or even with them right now. If Apple wants to put iTunes in ever pocket in the world, they will make a phone. The ROKR isn't their phone.

However, Apple has a history of extremely stupid business decisions and, until they recently had the iPod teach them what it was like to have a product that leads the mass market, they often work very hard to keep their market in a small, expensive, cliquish group of people that don't want to be bothered with technology and will pay to avoid it. Sure, they could drop prices and hit the mass market, but that would require a better product than what they have now. Something like the iPod is in that [the portable mp3 player] market: simple, steady, solid, working, and distinct.

Apple can never define the PC. They have defined the portable music player. They still have time to define the next mobile device (a smooth, white iPod phone the size of my mobile), and they probably know this and have the plans drawn out. They know the future of the iPod HAS to be a mobile phone, but until this cash cow starts slowing down, they'll keep inching it forward and letting motorola test the waters with stillborn devices like the ROKR, a device that, at best, will serve as the "look how [bad] that thing is and now look at this beautiful iPhone" comparison model that Apple uses when they release their phone...

I have since called the ROKR "a lamb being led to slaughter as the first step in a war between Apple and Motorola that Motorola didn't even realize they were in" and have seen a few others with similar opinions. Now Wired has published an article detailing many of the things I assumed.