Why the ROKR Failed

Posted by bzgoldman on January 8, 2012 01:19 am 21

In January 2007 Apple introduced a revolutionary phone with a multi touch display called the iPhone, but this was not there first attempt, it was actually there 3rd. Apple's first attempt was back in 1983, and it was a landline phone with a resistive touch screen. These pictures were found in the Sandford Apple archive. Apple did not decide it was worth it on640iphone01_medium

via 7.mshcdn.com


there first attempt.

Apple's 2nd attempt was back in 2005. Motorola had just released the RAZR, A razor thin smartphone that was the top selling phone until the iPhone came out, Steve Jobs was intrigued and he wanted in. Apple and Motorola teamed up and came out with this at a keynote in 2005, the ROKR:


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via img.ibtimes.com

This was the first phone with iTunes built in, and it seemed like a really good idea, what could've gone wrong? Well everything.

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via www.oreillynet.com

Above is a picture of the RAZR and ROKR next to each other, and as you can see the ROKR is much thicker then the RAZR. That was the first problem. The 2nd problem was that it was to slow with iTunes and did not sink well with iTunes. It also did not have a click wheel. But probably the biggest problem was that it only held 100 songs. In 2005. 100 songs. The original iPod could hold 10x as much. Steve Jobs was mad. He broke off the partnership with motorola and began making his teams work on an Apple designed phone. The first prototype was a phone with a click wheel to get through your contacts, but the 2nd was a multi touch display they were working on for a different project that later became the iPad, Steve chose multi-touch and made the iPhone. Fin.