Motorola ROKR is a SHOCKER

The phone that was supposed to rock, became nothing but a target of mock, didn’t sell resulting in a lot of stock, and now is gonna walk right back to the dock!

Well, the above rhyme summarizes the fate of the once highly anticipated music phone that had the world’s best music download software built right into it. The Motorola phone, which was developed in conjunction with Apple and had iTunes support for listening to music, isn’t performing as well as was expected.

As many as six times more customers are returning the ROKR phones than is normal for new handsets, which of course is something that should not be ignored. And not ignored it is, as Motorola Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander proclaimed that he is really disappointed with the phone’s marketing and sales and plans to fix it.

“We got off to a little bit of a rough start”, Zander said in an interview after Motorola reported on 18 October that third-quarter profit tripled, driven by more-popular phones such as the Razr. “People were looking for an iPod and that’s not what it is. We may have missed the marketing message there".

Motorola sold 250,000 iTunes phones in the short time it was on sale for Motorola’s last quarter compared to about 6.5 million Razr phones were sold during the entire quarter. Motorola’s CEO said the phone is a strong product but one that may need an improved marketing campaign, one that helps distinguish it from iPods and emphasizes the all-in-one convenience. The ROKR had been on the drawing board longer than expected, with the launch delayed several months by the two companies.

The other side of the problem as seen by analysts is that the ROKR was in direct competition from another Apple product itself, namely the very successful iPod nano. The nano, which was released on the same date as the ROKR, is an ultra chic device that looks absolutely stunning and holds 10 times the amount of songs than the ROKR for about half the price. So obviously people would prefer the nano over the ROKR even if it has the additional capability of being a phone.

In a previous statement, which was then receded, Zander said, “Screw the nano!" obviously showing his annoyance at Apple’s double edged sword of giving the company the chance to be the first to launch an iTunes phone, but only at the same time as that of a popular announcement from the computer company.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs did seem rather half-hearted when he introduced the ROKR in September, yet he recently said that "There are more phones yet to roll out.” So, it might not be all gloom and doom. The iTunes phone sales were about what was expected, but high return rates may spell trouble for the phone, especially since many Apple products benefit from positive word of mouth and viral marketing.