By Cassimir Medford

Apple announced Tuesday that Cingular Wireless would become the carrier and service behind the company’s music phone, but the largest mobile carrier in the United States will be facing two major stumbling blocks with the deal.

The music cell phone has not lived up to its immense promise, as evidenced by the ROKR, the last collaboration between Cingular and Apple, and the branding of cell phone service with powerful names such as Apple has been something of a disaster, so far.

The one thing in Cingular’s favor is the fact that to date the Apple brand has proven to be magic in the music device business. But can the Apple name and an Apple-conceived and designed cell phone overcome the public’s lukewarm reception of the cell phone as a portable jukebox?

When contacted ahead of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Macworld introducing the iPhone, a Cingular spokesperson refused to comment on any impending announcement with Apple, but he said that Cingular does not bury its brand behind its business partners’ brands.

Apple shares rose $7.31 to $92.78 in recent trading, while shares of Cingular’s parent company AT&T rose $0.15 to $33.96.

Disney Folds Mobile ESPN

Few companies have been successful at lending their brands to the cell phone service business, an arrangement called the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

In September the Walt Disney Company folded Mobile ESPN, an MVNO that seemed like a can’t-miss in sports-mad America when it was announced more than a year ago. Helio, an MVNO targeted at the youth market, has also not been as successful as many hoped (see Final Bell for Mobile ESPN).

Can the Apple brand overcome the public’s tepid response to standard cell phone services with hip, sexy names attached to them?

“I am not sure why Apple will risk its brand on any cell phone network,” said Peter Gorham, an independent wireless industry analyst.

“Cell phone networks are by nature spotty,” he added. “It’s a radio access network and you can’t cover everywhere all the time perfectly. Why risk the Apple brand in an MVNO situation?”

Music by the Numbers

Most carriers don’t break out their mobile music numbers from their overall data numbers, but Verizon said it sells about a million music downloads a month on its music-capable phones.

Since its ROKR experience, Cingular has announced deals with other music-oriented businesses including Napster, Yahoo Music, XM Satellite Radio, and eMusic.

Sprint Nextel also has its music phones, but the convergence of the cell phone and MP3 player has not garnered the kind of response many expected.

“Multifunctional phones frustrate the public because they have bad interfaces,” Mr. Gorham said. “The camera phone was supposed to eclipse standalone digital camera, but it never did because the camera in the camera phone is a very low-end device.