Apple Tunes Out

Example

In both The Times (via Reuters) and Journal today, we learn of Apple’s planned alliance with Motorola and Cingular to introduce a mobile phone equipped with i-Tunes — an i-Pod phone, if you will. I was curious to see a news conference flagged for Sept. 7 in San Francisco to make the announcement. WSJ SF tech scribe Nick Wingfield reported that “people familiar with the matter” spilled the beans.

Was this an intentional leak? Perhaps one of the gizmodo’s of the world got wind of the news forcing the new triumverat’s hand? Did yesterday’s negative news that Apple has settled the class action suit over the i-Pod’s less-than-advertised battery life have something to do with the release of the deal? No one from the three companies was talking.