Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, plans this year to sell a "walkie-talkie" style phone and launch a service next year that will let users download music on their mobile phone, a senior executive said Thursday.
The service fee would likely be "slightly higher" than what consumers pay for songs on iTunes, the popular system run by iPod creator Apple Computer Inc., Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer at Cingular, said on the sidelines at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York.
Earlier this month, Motorola and Apple introduced a new phone called ROKR, which plays music by incorporating iTunes. Cingular is the first operator to sell this phone.
Details regarding how the service would be run were still being worked out, de la Vega said, adding that he hoped it could be done in partnership with Apple.
Asked about demand for the ROKR, de la Vega said the company was making sales, but noted that "it takes a little while to build."
Cingular also plans to release other new products in 2005.
"Later this year you'll see us launch a new push-to-talk product," he said during the conference.
Such a product and related service may compete with a similar offering made popular by Nextel Communications, which was bought by Sprint to form Sprint Nextel Corp. Nextel built a loyal following of business customers with its push-to-talk service.
Cingular is a joint venture of BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc.
