The Motorola Rokr E6 is the next generation of the already released Rokr E1. Sales of the Rokr E1 were fairly disappointing. The Rokr is relatively unknown, although it has been out for over 14 months.
Motorola had hoped that this partnership with Apple would help boost sales, but found that no one wanted the model. The original Rokr was the first model to sport iTunes, which is the world famous music system found in the Apple iPod. The iPod turned out to be the biggest smash hit electronic device of all time. Apple proved to be genius when they created a never before seen device that everyone wanted. If you were to look at the partnership superficially, it would have made perfect sense. The Rokr should have been the best selling phone of all time.
Motorola would have profited strongly from the sales, and Apple would have been able to break into the cell phone market. We know that the Rokr was a disappointment, so we have to take a closer look to find out what went wrong. The first reason why the Rokr didn't work was the capping of songs at 100. In truth, this was a terrible decision and proved to be disastrous. One of the reasons that the iPod became a smash was the ability of users to take thousands of songs everywhere they went. What should Motorola have done? They should have added a card slot that would allow users to expand the memory.
They didn't. I personally didn't buy for this reason, although I liked the model when I first heard about it. The second reason for low Rokr sales was the look of the model. Instead of making the Rokr look like the iPod, they made it look like the Motorola Slvr L7.
Of course they made it white, but it was indeed still a Motorola looking phone. What were they thinking? They should have made it look like an iPod, and sales would have been through the roof, even though the phone was less powerful than it should have been. Let's move to reason number three. The Rokr was equipped with USB 1.
2. We're thinking that no one told them that USB 2.0 is 40 times faster than USB 1.2.
That tells us that when we upload songs to the Rokr E1, it takes 40 times longer than it does when we upload to an iPod. The speed of the connection is painfully slow. So let's recap why the original Rokr didn't sell. Users could only have 100 songs, while they could have thousands on their iPods. Users didn't like the look, primarily because the phone didn't look like an iPod. Transferring songs was painfully slow.
Users had to wait for way too long, which caused some major complaining in the forums. The next generation Rokr, the E6 solves all the problems that held back the E1. The model has a full size SD card slot. Users will be able to add as much memory as they can afford. There are 8gb cards available, which would allow for the storage of a few thousand songs. Even if Motorola cripples the memory size, users will be able to override the limit because of the Linux operating system of the E6.
The Rokr E6 looks very much like an iPod, and offers a touch screen that users will surely love. This will be the first non-PDA to use a stylus instead of a keypad. This feature isn't even used with the iPod yet.
Motorola got it right this time, even though it is rumored that the E6 will use Real Player instead of iTunes. The E6 will sport USB 2.0, which will increase the transfer of songs by 40 times. Users will be able to put songs on the model quickly, so the model should get better ratings from the online community.
As we have shown, the Rokr E6 is a great phone, and we should beg Motorola to release it in the U.S. The current version of the E6 is set up for GSM 1900, which is the network used in China. Anyone that is interested in buying the Rokr E6 in the U.
S. should definitely start talking about it online.
Courtney writes product reviews and publications such as this one on Motorola Rokr E6 and Rokr E6.
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