New Motorola Music Handsets Are Nice, But Where's The iPod Phone?New Motorola Music Handsets Are Nice, But Where's The iPod Phone?

Motorola made a much-anticipated unveiling of music-capable handsets Thursday, but the phone that was most-anticipated " a device based on Apple Computer's iPod " was conspicuous by its absence.

While the new Motorola phones have features that enable users to transfer, store and play stereo music, the mystery over the missing iPod handset only deepens. Motorola's Buzz Marketing unit, which announced the phones, was not immediately available for comment. Motorola has been talking about an iPod handset for months.

"This isn't technology for technology's sake," said Alberto Moriondo, worldwide director of entertainment, Mobile Devices Business for Motorola, in a statement as he described the new phones. "This is technology for music's sake." The phone targeted for first delivery " next month in Asia -- is the Motorola E680i, which operates with Bluetooth stereo headphones. Motorola said the E680i offers easy plug and play capability between handset and PC while also enabling users to connect with Music Store to download music. The handset supports MP3, WMA, RealAudio/Video, MIDI, WAV, AAC and additional formats. In addition, the device features an FM receiver, handwriting recognition and e-mail capability.

The Motorola E725 will be available in the Americas in the second half of the year. It has EV-DO capability and has advanced audio features. U.S. cell phone service providers with EV-DO capability include Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

The Motorola E685, slated for availability in the first half of the year in China, features a color display, MP3 players, VGA camera, and CDMA 1x data capability. The handsets, unveiled at the MP3 Summit in Miami, have no published prices as yet.

The music-listening world will have to wait for Motorola's iPod and speculation is growing over the holdup of the device. The top executives of Motorola, Ed Zander, and Apple, Steve Jobs, met recently and sparked reports of a coming iTunes-capable phone from Motorola. Apple's fabulously successful iPod music player is typically used to download music from the company's iTunes Web music store.

But the announcement was held up, presumably because of different product announcement strategies. According to media reports, Motorola was prepared to announce the product at industry shows this month, but Apple, held it up. Motorola tends to announce products with lead times while Apple's Steve Jobs likes to hold announcements close to his vest for last-minute unveilings. Apple has instituted legal action against Web site operators who report data on Apple products before the firm has officially unveiled the products.

"Steve's perspective is that you launch a product on Sunday and sell it on Monday," said Ron G. Garriques, president of Motorola's mobile phone unit, in describing the situation at a recent news conference, according to the Reuters news service.

Others have noted that cell phone service providers aren't enthusiastic about a potential iPod handset that could download music and cut the cell phone providers out of the profits.

Also on Thursday, Motorola unveiled a product called iRadio, which aims to mobilize hundreds of commercial-free Web radio outlets, as well as play users' personal music collections.

"The service uses a high-speed Internet connection, Bluetooth technology, and a mobile phone to offer listeners a continuous entertainment experience," the company stated. "Users can start a song on your car radio at exactly the point where you stopped it on your living room stereo."