iPod Cell Phones coming, but why and when?

Some insightful commentary over at roughly drafted.com regarding Apple iPod and adding a cell phone capability to it - or adding iPod - ness to a cell phone. Tough to tell what would happen in this Chicken/Egg debate.

Motorola of course has some connections now to iTunes to move music onto some of their units, but again, that is not the "iPod" experience, only a pale substitute.

The tough part for cell phone companies (either or both the hardware and services) will be convincing Apple that there is enough raw profit (not revenue - PROFIT) to make Apple risk their precious iPod brand on a telephony solution. It would be like convincing CocaCola to put their name on a new candy bar or potato chip - snacks to be sure, but not with the mind numbing profits of a soft drink.

Plus, the cell phone partner risks huge market collapse of their other hardware solutions that may actually threaten their business while it benefits apple. There are a lot of old phones still in use out there, and replacement with an Apple branded phone is obviously not a given.

An interesting hybrid market to be sure, but I'd rather see a good quality camera built into my next iPod before I worry about playing music on my phone. Just my view of the world.

Tags: mobile, cell, phones, cellphones, apple, nano, shuffle, ipod, movies