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Motorola CEO Says "Screw the nano"

Monday, September 26th, 2005 at 3:35 PM - by

Motorola CEO Ed Zander doesn't care much for Apple's new iPod nano. In a leadership seminar hosted by the Churchill Club Friday, September 23rd, Mr. Zander said point blank, "Screw the nano," according to a report from IDG.

Strong words from the CEO of a company that worked with Apple, the maker of iPod nano, to produce Motorola's iTunes-capable phone, the ROKR.

"What the hell does the nano do?" he asked. "Who listens to 1,000 songs? People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks and savvy users."

Mr. Zander may not have noticed that the iPod -- a line of digital media devices that does one thing, and one thing only, play music in capacities of a few hundred up to 15,000 songs -- is the hottest product on the planet in terms of mind share and market share within the world of digital media devices.

Accordingly, the answer to his question, "Who listens to 1,000 songs?" is simply the many millions of people who buy iPods quarter after quarter.

That said, the entire digital media device market is a fraction of the size of the cell phone market where Motorola is a major player.

Thanks to our friends at MacCentral for the heads up on the quote.

17 comments from the community.

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JimWCB said:

member since 29 Aug 2002 with 301 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:45 pm

Looks like someone is mad at being upstaged at the introduction.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:55 pm

Yep, he's gotta be right, I mean look at their brilliant entry into the market:P

Until batteries are considerably better I won't be listening to music on my cell phone. I will preserve its batteries for actually communicating with people - now there's a novel use for a cell phone...

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mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:58 pm

I think a better question is "who ONLY listens to 33 songs" or whatever puny number is on the Rokr... which I prefer to think of as an old ladies rocker.

I like to be able to choose from thousands of songs on any one day. I may not listen to them each in a row, but having them handy on a seperate device works better for me than having an album's worth on my cell phone.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 26, 2005 4:26 pm

I have to agree that Zander is just angry because the Nano and the ROKR got introduced at the same time, and the Nano totally upstaged and outshone the ROKR.

Next time Ed, don't get mad, let Apple co-design the phone with you, instead of just supplying the iTunes client. Then you'll have a winner, instead of the dud you do have with the ROKR.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 26, 2005 4:43 pm

Maybe he should be pissed at his software engineers that write the crappy software for motorola phones. I have a motorola now and the user interface is retarded compared to the Sony-Ericsson I had before it.

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craigtheguru said:

member since 26 Sep 2005 with 2 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:18 pm

"Who listens to 1,000 songs?" This quote is laughable. Not only is this FUD directed at Apple, the principle target, but also at every other manufacturer of music players.

I, like many others, have a phone and iPod and don't see replacing them with a single device for number of years.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:20 pm

Mr. Zander should be pissed at his entire engineering group. The nano, from all reports, does what it is suppose to do, namely, play music. I'd be thrilled if my POS Motorola cell phone played music. Then it would at least work for something, because is sure doesn't function as a cell phone. It locks up constantly, battery life is abysmal (who has heard of a brand new battery only lasting 3 days on standby?), and drops calls every time it transitions to a new cell tower. Personally I think Apple should be pissed that it is tied in with such a crappy company as Motorola.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:43 pm

"Screw the Nano"?? What does this say about the size of Mr. Zander's equipment? I mean..that thing isn't that big...unless of course, Mr. Zander is on the bottom in this arrangement! LOL

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:49 pm

Poor Ed Zander...he just doesn't get it. No wonder Apple is going to start using Intel chips...

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:51 am

Screw the nano. It can't make phone calls.

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UpQuark said:

member since 26 Aug 2001 with 92 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:08 am

I think this was taken out of context. How many times have we all said MS sucks - but continue to use their products.

I would have said the same thing in his shoes and been joking about it too. Sarcasm is a part of the language. Jeesh.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 612 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:10 am

Screw the ROKR! It can't play "shoot the parachute dudes."

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:40 am

Quote:
"What the hell does the nano do?" he asked. "Who listens to 1,000 songs? People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks and savvy users."

So in one breath he insulted not only Apple, but also everyone that has bought a Mini, Nano, or Shuffle iPod, as well as all of his current customers for not being "savvy" enough and oh, just for the heck of it let's cast aspersions on all American cell systems and customers while we're at it. Oh yeah, this was a good move on his part.

Personally I don't want a device that does five things marginally.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:43 am

"Screw the Nano"

Hmm.

Small unit?

Sounds like a little envy going on here.

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Steve W said:

member since 22 Nov 2002 with 482 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:06 pm

UpQuark wrote:
I think this was taken out of context. How many times have we all said MS sucks - but continue to use their products.

I would have said the same thing in his shoes and been joking about it too. Sarcasm is a part of the language. Jeesh.

From reading the article, I don't think he was joking or that the remark was taken out of context. As geoduck noted above, his follow-on comments indicated that he prefers multi-function devices, so I'd say he was serious.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:08 pm

[quote="Steve W"]

UpQuark wrote:
I think this was taken out of context. How many times have we all said MS sucks - but continue to use their products.

I don't use MS products unless I have absolutely no choice (like at work). Because they suck.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:20 pm

Re: the comparison of US cel phone systems to European systems. A major reason that the US systems are not as sophisticated as the European systems is that the cel carriers have fought innovations. The systems in Europe and Asia are much more regulated than US systems, yet they provide better service. When an entrepreneurial firm tried to set up a new, Euro-Asian styel system in Iraq right after the fall of Hussein, the US authorities shut it down and wrote rules requiring that Iraq use US standards, unlike every country in the region. As a result, they have crappy cel phone service.

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