Apple has reached a deal with Cingular Wireless to offer a Motorola cell phone that will play tunes from Apple's ITunes Music Store, according to a media report Tuesday. The announcement could come at a Sept. 7 Apple (AAPL) media event in San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition. Apple and Cingular plan to market the phone in time for the holiday season, The Journal said.

The new mobile phone will feature Apple's iTunes software, which will enable users to move audio files from their PCs to iPod-like phone and then listen to music files through the headphones. However, according to Gartner online-music analyst Mike McGuire, it would still take quite a while before users can download music files directly from the Internet onto the iTunes mobile phone.

The plans outlined for an Apple phone are consistent with recent announcements by Motorola, which said in July 2004 that it planned to develop a device that would include the iTunes software.

In July of this year, Motorola said that development of the iTunes phone was on track to be unveiled by the end of September.

Jennifer Weyrauch, a spokeswoman for Motorola did say, generally speaking, that when Motorola unveiled a phone equipped with iTunes software, it would be a part of a line of music-oriented phones that the company calls Rokr.