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ROKR - the iTunes phone from Motorola "is just another E298" - review lukewarm

Word on the streets in the UK is that Carphone Warehouse is having trouble shifting all the Motorola ROKR phones - and with reviews like the one from MobileTracker.net, they may well be giving the things away with cornflakes come Christmas.

The review, by Jon Gales, is non-committal, but then launches into a killer attack: "One of the first things I noticed about the ROKR E1 was that it is very slow when iTunes is playing music. This holds true if you're inside iTunes or if it is hidden. For a phone with music features being so central, this is a fatal flaw."

But for music, it's great, right? Wrong: "Speaking of speed, plan on about an hour to transfer a full load of music onto your ROKR E1 since it's a USB 1 connection."

And with the discovery that you have to launch the iTunes application to control music playback, you end up thinking: "I'll get an iPod, and a nice phone, and not try to combine the two."

Motorola's attempt to boost disappointing sales: to announce mobile podcasting for both ROKR and RAZR phones, using Melodeo's Mobilcast technology, unveiled in August, which "allows users to search and download podcasts directly from their phones, over the cell phone network without a PC connection." The software was actually announced for Nokia phones in September; it's been in beta test for Motorola since then.

Full details from Gales including pictures

Original launch story at NewsWireless

No, there will be no FLKR...FLKR, ROKR, iPod