Is Apple's ROKR E1 iTunes Phone a Dud?

The world is abuzz with the Apple's revelation of the new ROKR E1 phone. For U.S. readers the phone will go for $249.99 with a two-year contract with Cingular. That is in my opinion costs almost an-arm-and-a-leg considering the all too rudimentary capabilities of the phone (see previously released Motorola E398) and its contractually imposed limit of 100 songs. Engadget reveals that the 100 based limit was a "licensing issue".

Incidentally, here's an intresting item about who takes a cut in the music downloads business. This leads me to bet that Cingular would charge $2 for over the air downloads. This all assumes of course if they ever make OTA a possibility. The "iTunes + Cingular" website mentions only how to load music via syncing via USB attached to a MAC or PC. Wouldn't an OTA download be emphasized a bit more? The conspicuous lack of mention makes me wonder.

To add insult to injury, despite the device's touted bluetooth capability, there's no way of using it to listen to your music. Furthermore, rumor has it that pause and resume of music when you receive a call wasn't working properly!

Interestingly enough, the phone includes a Java based MP3 player that can play all the songs that can fit in an expandable microSD memory card (unfortunately TransFlash maximum is 512mb). Given that fact and if I were serious about mobile music then I would head over and grab a Sony Ericsson W800 which is selling like hotcakes. Definitely more feature packed and much more pleasing to the eyes (see 'disappointed' for a visual explanation). Add to that this fact, a recent survey reveals that most popular use of a phone today is to snap pictures (besting listening to music). Wouldn't you then want the really practical capability of a 2 megapixel camera rather than a truly useless VGA camera?

Which is a segway into to my latest pet peeve. Why do carriers continue to pitch out-dated, crappy and down right ugly phones to the American public?