never mind the treo ....

Apple Unveils Long-Awaited iPhone
CEO Steve Jobs Promises to 'Reinvent'
Handset Market With Touch-Screen Device
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
January 9, 2007 3:18 p.m.

Apple Computer Inc. said it plans to launch a cellphone, dubbed the iPhone, that downloads and plays music, hoping to parlay Apple's success with the iPod media player into the larger, albeit more competitive, wireless business.

The announcement, by Chief Executive Steve Jobs at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, puts to end months of speculation about the new products the Cupertino, Calif., company had on deck for 2007. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Apple could unveil the phone at Macworld and that it would partner with AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless.

"Apple is going to reinvent" the wireless industry and "leapfrog" past the current generation of multimedia phones, Mr. Jobs told attendees. He confirmed that Cingular will be Apple's exclusive carrier in the U.S. and said Apple's goal is to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008.

In a sign of how drastically the 30-year-old company's fortunes have been changed by the recent success of its iPod player and the significance of its foray into telecommunications, Mr. Jobs announced that the company, long known for its Macintosh machines, was dropping the word "computer" from its corporate name. It will now be called Apple Inc.

The iPhone, which is less than a half-inch thick, has no keyboard or dial pad. Instead, it uses a 3.5-inch wide touch-sensitive screen to make calls, watch videos or listen to music. It comes with a two-megapixel digital camera built into the back and can connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi wireless technology.

The iPhone, which will be available in the U.S. in June and later this year in Europe, will come in two versions. A model with four gigabytes of storage space will cost $499, while a version with eight gigabytes of storage will cost $599. Users will pay a premium for the new gadget. Apple has sold its four-gigabyte iPod nano for $200 and eight-gigabyte iPod nano for $250.

Mr. Jobs demonstrated the phone's music capabilities onstage by playing "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid'' from the Beatles' "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band." For users, the phone should have five hours of battery life and 16 hours of playback time, Mr. Jobs said.

The phone will automatically synch a user's media -- movies, music, photos -- through Apple's iTunes digital content store. The device also synchs email content, Web bookmarks and nearly any type of digital content stored on a computer. "It's just like an iPod,'' Mr. Jobs said, "charge and synch."

The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. It has Apple's Safari browser for Internet surfing. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. on Web-based e-mail and Google Inc. on maps.

The product gives Apple access to the huge cellphone market, with nearly a billion handsets shipped every year. That dwarfs the nearly 70 million iPods Apple has sold over the past five years. News of the iPhone, which has been the talk of Wall Street and Apple fans for months, sent shares of Apple up $5.21, or 6.1%, to $90.68 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Apple also outlined its plans to enter the interactive television business with a product named "Apple TV." The company showed a prototype of this device, which was code-named iTV, in September. It allows users to play television shows and movies downloaded from the Internet on their TV sets. The device, which contains a 40 gigabyte hard drive, will cost $299 and begin shipping in February, Mr. Jobs said.

Apple will likely have to pay Cisco Systems Inc. for the right use "iPhone" as the name for its new cellphone. Cisco, which owns the rights to the name "IPhone" and unveiled a line of Internet-based phone devices using that brand last month, said it has been in talks with Apple about the trademark and expects to sign an agreement later today.

"Given Apple's numerous requests for permission to use Cisco's iPhone trademark over the past several years, and our extensive discussions with them recently, it is our belief that with their announcement today Apple intends to agree to the final document and public statement," said a Cisco spokeswoman.

The iPhone is not Apple's first foray into the handset market. Cingular Wireless launched the first Apple phone, called ROKR, in September 2005. Designed and produced by Motorola Inc., the phone wasn't very popular because it could store a mere 100 songs and lacked the smooth design and ease of use that many iPod users have come to expect.

Apple has a lot riding on the new products. While the company has enjoyed several years of fast growth riding on the back of its hit iPod player, there is a growing sense in the financial community that Apple needed to enter potentially big new categories like cellphones and television set-top boxes to keep up the momentum started by the iPod.

While the iPod is still selling well, the business is growing at a significantly slower clip as it gets larger. Apple sold 39.4 million iPods that brought in $7.68 billion in revenue during its most recent fiscal year ended Sept. 30. The number of iPods sold was up 75% from the previous fiscal year, but down from 409% growth the year prior to that.

In his presentation, Mr. Jobs tried to dispel concerns that the company's music business has matured and is facing new competition from Microsoft Corp. and others. He said the iPod had 62% of the market in November and iTunes has sold two billion songs, 50 million television shows and 1.3 million movies since its launch.

Apple is also trying to move beyond a recent imbroglio over an internal investigation into improper backdating of stock options. Macworld is one of the first times in months that longtime Apple watchers will get to publicly appraise Mr. Jobs, who has kept a low profile since the investigation began last June. Apple found that Mr. Jobs recommended favorable grant dates for some option awards, but the company cleared him of any wrongdoing last month. He still faces scrutiny from federal investigators looking into the matter.

For its part, Cingular Wireless is betting that music phones will help it attract new subscribers. In November, Cingular launched a music service on its cellphone network with some of the biggest online music services, including Napster Inc., Yahoo Music and eMusic. Phone users can transfer music acquired from "all you can eat" subscription services from personal computers to music phones.

escap wrote: [quote=Drano]I knew I shouldnn't have bought that Zune.

WhyFi wrote: I wonder how effective a touch screen will be for clacking out texts and emails... don't dismiss the tactile!!!

Boygabriel wrote: I know they're trendy and everyone on the L train has one, but you're a fool if that dissuades you from owning one. Sorry guys.

Drano wrote:

what is the HD size of your thingie?

20GB, but that's fine for me, I don't think I have used half of it - I'm kinda lazy when it comes to updating it, but I throw new stuff on there now and then.

Boygabriel wrote: [quote=Drano]

what is the HD size of your thingie?

20GB, but that's fine for me, I don't think I have used half of it - I'm kinda lazy when it comes to updating it, but I throw new stuff on there now and then.