Steve Jobs on iTunes Phone and Carriers
AlwaysOn posts a transcript of an interview with Steve Jobs from this year's D: All Things Digital conference.
The transcript provides insights from Steve Jobs about his opinion of the current cell phone market and Apple's positioning.
Of note, the first generation of Motorola iTunes enabled phones will simply provide an iTunes music player interface and allow you to transfer songs from your Mac or PC. The iTunes music store will not be directly available on the phone itself, so songs can not be purchased wirelessly. Jobs notes, "Maybe we'll do some over the air stuff later, but we don't think that that's going to be where the action is."
Jobs goes on to criticize wireless carrier's current plans to charge $2-$3/song on their own music networks and doesn't think it will work:
Well, it's going to be a lousy buying experience, and the music is going to cost two to three times as much as if you buy it on your computer. It's hard to imagine that customers are that stupid.
When questioned about the lifespan of the iPod and why the functionality won't eventually move into the cell phone, Jobs answers, "I'm going to leave the answer to our actions in the future"
An earlier transcript interview of Steve Jobs details reasons he feels a Video iPod would not work.
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