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The iTunes phone holds only about 100 songs. But it includes nifty features, such as automatically pausing the music when you get a call.
Users can easily switch from phone to music and back again with the push of a dedicated music key. The iTunes software on the Rokr phone features simple menus, navigation and playback. It has a color display for viewing album art or photos. Users can listen to music while text messaging friends or taking photos with the built-in camera.
The iTunes phone "points to an entirely new direction for Apple," said Peter Rojas, editor in chief of Engadget, a Web magazine devoted to consumer electronics. "It's important because cell phones are absorbing so much of the functionality of other devices."
Apple was forced to come out with a music phone because of the realities of the market, Rojas says. "Apple realizes that if you don't cannibalize your own business somebody else will," he said.
Apple sells millions of iPods every year, but the cell phone industry sells hundreds of millions of handsets, Rojas says.
Many casual music listeners might not be interested in getting an iPod, but they might like a cell phone that doubles as a music player, he says.
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