Steve Ballmer's comments on the iPhone and other Apple stuff.....

Steve Ballmer gave an interview to USA Today.......His comments on the iPhone :)

Q: People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you'd want them to feel about Microsoft?

A: It's sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.

Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job.

But it's not like we're at the end of the line of innovation that's going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I'll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune.

I know this is an Apple iPhone Blog, but I'll make an exception for Steve Ballmer, his arrogance knows no bounds.....
On the Zune.....

Q: When can we look forward to a Zune phone?

A: It's not a concept you'll ever get from us. We're in the Windows Mobile business. We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general purpose device. You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is. The phone really is kind of a general purpose device that we need to have clean and easy to use.

On the XBox......

Q: With the Xbox, it looks like you're targeting the hard-core gamers. Are there enough to make this a good business?

A: Version one we targeted to hard-core gamers. With Xbox 360, we're broadening the audience. You may notice the color is white with faceplates, not black. It actually rounds out the audience appeal of the product. Now you can customize for the hard-core gamer; you can customize in other ways.

If you look at the game selection: Viva Piñata is targeted at a more female and a younger demographic than anything else we've done. Our arcade games, traditional board games and card games target casual gamers. The audience tends to skew older than the average gamer and tends to skew again more female than the, quote, typical hard-core gamer.

There will be a Halo 3. There will be a Gears of War 2. We're not going to stop that stuff. On the other hand, we're trying to broaden the appeal as opposed to revector

On Google Aps.......

Q: Google has been rolling out applications that are very similar to Office. Are you concerned about competition from Internet-based applications?

A: They've come out with what I might call — what's the politically correct way of saying it? — they've come out with some of the lowest functionality, lowest capability applications of all time. (Laughter.)

If you want to sit and write a paper for school, you're not going to use Google Docs. You can't even put a footnote in. Now, last time I checked, that's still kind of important to give attribution. (Laughter.) There are some basic, basic things that you just don't find.

In the short run, we don't have a lot of competition; in the long run, sure. We always have some competition. We have competition from OpenOffice. We have competition from StarOffice. We're going to have competition from Google. We have competition from IBM. And competition is a very good thing for Google to give us, and for us to give Google.

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The iPhone's impact on the Mobile Music Download scene....

iPhone's impact on the music download market.....

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Media analyst Screen Digest has completed some interesting research into the global market for over-the-air (OTA) mobile music downloads, as well as speculating on what impact the iPhone may have on this market.

By the end of 2006, the global market for OTA mobile music was worth around £113m, most of which was generated by single track downloads in the US. The global online music download market was worth around £636m.

By 2012, Screen Digest forecast the global mobile music market will be worth over £1bn, the vast majority thanks to consumers in Japan and South Korea. The reasoning for this is primarily due to vastly superior mobile networks in those countries than European and US citizens have the luxury of. For this reason, Western consumers prefer to download music onto their PCs over higher speed broadband connections, and then synchronise with their music devices / phones.

Screen Digest forecast that subscription-based music services will emerge over the next three years, and account for two-thirds of total mobile music revenues worldwide by 2012. Something that Steve Jobs may want to take note of, as he has hinted at being interested in subscription music services, while saying Apple won't launch such a service at other times.

Screen Digest digital music specialist Dan Cryan says: “This is a really exciting time for mobile music and industry players are jostling to enter a rapidly growing market with the right products and business models. On the one hand we have Apple’s iPhone, the first generation of which doesn’t lend itself it to over-the-air music downloads."

I'd question his belief that the first generation iPhone doesn't lend itself to OTA music downloads. Though it's likely that most people, particularly on slower mobile networks in the US, will upload music to their iPhone via iTunes on their Mac or PC (as per iPod) the inbuilt Wi-Fi—plus the possibility of a 3G international version of the iPhone—means that OTA downloading of tracks straight to the iPhone should easily be possible with a tweaked version of iTunes.

With many predicting that the iPhone will revolutionise the mobile industry, could it do for mobile music what iTunes has done for online music?

Ironically, it will be iTunes that underpins music on the iPhone, so in reality it will be the software that needs to change to facilitate a successful iPhone experience.

Will Apple listen to a potential wave of new customers, perhaps including a number who haven't used iTunes before?

Will the lure of a piece of the potentially lucrative subscription-based music download service tempt Jobs (or any successor) to offer such a service to iPhone/iPod users?

Only time will tell, but it's in the area of portable music devices and accompanying software that Apple has, arguably, made its biggest mark amongst general consumers. Apple likes to set trends. How will the iPhone shape mobile music, or will mobile music shape future generations of iPhone?

Does the 3G iPhone exist ?

Does the 3G iPhone exist ? If not, how will it affect iPhone sales in non-US markets ? Especially Europe and Asia ? cjs from iPhoneFAQ writes........

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Some of us have been confused since the moment the iPhone was announced with a lack of support for 3G (third generation) networks. The iPhone is, after all, a next generation device. Why, then, would a next generation device lack support for the next generation of wireless mobile connectivity?

For investors, the question may have farther reaching implications. A recent informal survey by InformationWeek suggested that a majority of prospective European customers would not consider purchasing the iPhone due to the lack of 3G support. In Europe, 3G services are more widespread and day to day usage of common mobile features would be either impossible or considerably unbearable without third generation data speeds.

It is likely, however, that European customers won’t have to worry about whether or not to buy a 3G-lacking iPhone.
Early reports have indicated that the iPhone will be released in Europe either late in 2007 or early in 2008. Though unconfirmed, some outlets have made mention of an October iPhone launch in Europe.

Apple, savvy as they are, are unlikely to release a non-3G version of the iPhone in Europe. Though the lack of 3G on the upcoming US version of the iPhone (June 2007) has been questioned, most US consumers won’t be bothered by the lack of support. Most US customers use their devices for non 3G applications, such as voice calls and SMS, especially due to the lack of 3G services in the states. In Europe, as previously mentioned, 3G has been around for years and cannot easily be ignored.

Many things have pointed towards a 3G iPhone headed to Europe. Reports early this year from Japanese and Taiwanese iPhone component manufacturers indicated that Apple was preparing to build two versions of the initial iPhone - both a GSM/EDGE and a 3G version. It was later reported that European service providers, considering backing out of a comittment to offer the iPhone to their customers due to delays and a lack of third generation network support, were given assurance that the GSM/EDGE would be available to them by September 2007, with a 3G version overseas by January 2008.

All of this stands to reason. Apple has been forthcoming about both its intention to develop a 3G version of the iPhone (and soon) as well as it’s reasoning behind leaving 3G out of the upcoming innaugural release. Third generation technology, especially when intermittent, is a major drain on battery power. In the US, 3G service is not available in most areas. Although AT&T is continuously expanding its 3G coverage, until recently only a limited number of major metropolitan regions offered support for third generation devices. The addition of 3G to the initial US of the iPhone, some have suggested, would be more of a wasteful nuisance than a valuable addition.

European customers likely have little to worry about. If not immediately available upon the European iPhone launch, a 3G version will not be far behind.

Take part or view the results of the iPhone Europe Poll

Apple iPhone: The best business phone

Will the iPhone make a good business phone ?

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So Microsoft is out there saying that the iPhone is useless and irrelevant to business or lacks business savvy. Maybe they need to be more clear and argue that the iPhone is irrelevant to the enterprise. I can buy that argument, but business in general, especially small business? I don’t and can’t buy that argument. My stance is that the iPhone is the best small business phone out there. The reason: It’s flipping easy to use!

Now what does that have to do with small business users? Everything.

If you are in business, you need to adopt things that have a short learning curve (we learn this lesson everyday), because you just don’t have much time to learn stuff. The beauty of the iPhone is that is presents to you just the interface you need when you need it. And because the interface is dynamic, the iPhone can take up the whole screen when you are doing that one thing.

Microsoft keeps raising two arguments:

1. You cannot load third party software
2. You cannot open MS Office documents

The one thing that they seem to forget is that the iPhone has the multi-tasking Mac OS X at its core. Mac OS X already trumps Microsoft’s Desktop OS, never mind their mobile OS. You can already read MS Word documents with Mac OS X out of the box using TextEdit. As a developer, I can tell you the .doc reading capabilities are right in Cocoa. You can open PowerPoint documents in Keynote and I’m sure Apple has something up their sleeve for Excel documents.

We also know that many of the frameworks used on Mac OS X are also on the iPhone. It’s easy to see that Quartz, WebKit, CoreAnimation (and thus CoreFoundation) are there. I would also venture to say that portions of Cocoa (with a variant of the AppKit) and other frameworks are there as well (I doubt Apple would write apps for iPhone in Carbon or some other unknown GUI framework).

So it is not an issue of capabilities - the iPhone OS is plenty capable. I think it’s a matter of timing. Apple is releasing the most powerful OS a mobile device has ever seen. That in itself is a major challenge, never mind dealing with developer kits and whatnot. Let them get the basics right first.

Strategically, I think Apple is doing it right. They are making it easier to use and more appealing to the masses. They are specifically veering away from the enterprise market (for now) because addressing that market makes things more complicated and unappealing to the masses.

Besides, the enterprise market is not one of Apple’s core strengths, but the small business market is a different story. And we all know that there are more consumers and small business users than there are enterprise users.

The iPhone has everything that a small business needs and if you really need to read a Word or Excel document, you’ll just ask the sender to send you a PDF version.

When the time is right and the economics make sense, I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that Apple will have a process of getting third party apps on the iPhone.

So again - why is the iPhone is the most important small business phone? Because more business users will use it because they want to use it, instead of being forced to use it.

While I don’t track how many people make inquiries about new, upcoming phones. 1 million inquiries seems like a lot. Microsoft must be worried about Apple delivering a better OS on a device than they can on a desktop, otherwise why bother with all the FUD?

Until next time…
AJ

iPhone's launch harkens more growth for Apple

More growth for Apple, the iPhone route. Can the iPhone do an 'Ipod' to Apple's Growth and profit margins ?

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By Jefferson Graham
Gannett News Service

LOS ANGELES — Today, the iPod; tomorrow, the iPhone.

Investors Thursday cheered Apple's record second-quarter results, which showed major sales growth for its iPod digital music device and Mac computers. But Apple's best days are ahead, tech analysts say.

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Apple is putting most of its energies into the June release of the iPhone, a combination iPod/Internet browser and cell phone that will sell for $499 and $599. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has projected sales of 10 million iPhones in its first year. At an average retail price of $500, that would generate $5 billion in additional sales.

“The iPhone has the potential to be even bigger than the iPod,” says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. “The cell phone market is gigantic.”

Charles Wolf, president of investment consultant Wolf Insights, says Apple will likely follow its iPod pricing strategy — starting with a high retail price, and lowering it as costs decrease. “Once the price comes down, Apple could get to a 5 percent market share of phones, good for 75 to 100 million units a year,” Wolf says.

Mac sales have doubled from five years ago, when the iPod was introduced. Wolf believes the iPhone will have a similar “halo effect.”

“Now you have another device besides the iPod that will get people interested in Macs,” says Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research. “The iPhone is basically a portable Mac.”

Apple's computer business is growing. But its shipments of 1.5 million computers in the first quarter is “a drop in the bucket” compared with overall computer shipments, Wolf says.

According to researcher Gartner, some 62.7 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the first quarter, with Apple registering a 5 percent market share in the United States.

No. 1 manufacturer Hewlett-Packard shipped 11 million PCs.

Munster thinks the success of the iPhone could help Apple eventually more than triple its computer shipments, to 5 million a quarter.

But he says that at his most optimistic, he can't imagine Apple's computer market share rising to above 15 percent in the United States. “Apple doesn't play in the business and government markets, where the really huge sales are,” he says.

Investors don't seem concerned about an Apple options-backdating scandal that has made headlines, Wu says. “It's behind us.”

On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against two former Apple officers. One, former CFO Fred Anderson, claimed Jobs knew more about the backdating than Jobs or Apple has acknowledged. The SEC settled with Anderson, who agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine but admitted no wrongdoing. On Wednesday, Apple's board said it has “complete confidence” in Jobs.

Apple stock closed up 3.7 percent Thursday at $98.84, a record, and briefly topped $100 a share for the first time.

Fake iPhone Copy - The Meizu miniOne M8

The fake iPhone Copy market is heating up, another one emerges......

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With the iPhone's release less than two months away, the competition is heating up. Sort of, at least. As other cell phone companies release various mp3 phones, the Chinese tech manufacturer Meizu has grand plans to release the miniOne, originally dubbed the M8, the most blatant iPhone rip off yet. At a casual glance, one could not tell the two products apart. Line the iPhone, the miniOne is a large phone almost entirely covered with a touch screen, capable of serving as a cell phone, an mp3 player, and a web browser. Although it runs Windows Mobile rather than Apple's mobile operating system, there is really very little difference between the two products. Funny how that happens.

Meizu originally released plans for the miniOne about a week before Apple announced the iPhone at its annual convention. Upon seeing the iPhone, though, Meizu modified its product slightly, making it a bit smaller and better looking, a bit more like the iPhone. Although not a lot of details about this new product are available yet, it appears the miniOne will have the iPhone beat in a few respects. Its screen, for one, has a resolution of 720 x 480, quite excellent for its size. Its design, too, is attractive, possibly more so than the original, something not often the case with Apple knockoffs.

It is interesting to watch as everyone jumps on the iPhone bandwagon. It seems that since the iPod, a product that was never really answered, that competing technology companies would have learned not to be such lemmings, but apparently this is not the case. Rather than seeing new and different twists on combining a cell phone and an mp3 player, we have instead seen knockoffs like this one and a number of failed attempts to create a fancy mp3 cell phones. Verizon, as well as Samsung, have taken a few stabs at this, with products such as the UpStage and the Chocolate. Both are relatively normal phones, souped up to be able to play mp3s, but not effective mp3 players in their own right. Lacking storage space and battery life, and coming with plans that allow you to download songs at $2.50 a whack, they have failed to catch on.

Assuming Meizu can keep Apple's lawyers off its product, however, it may have created a successful generic iPhone, and done job at knocking off Apple than anyone before. However, there is no question that Apple will still come out far ahead of the competition with its new product, and the entire industry will once again be caught with its pants down.

Why the iPhone will succeed, at any price

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Apple iPhone Vs. Motorola Vs Canon

The press loves to talk about Apple. The cynics chalk it up to Steve Jobs's public relations savvy, while some journalists might counter that Apple products are unique, influential and iconic. With the iPod, Apple swept through and dominated the portable music player market. Now it's threatening to do the same with cell phones.

Mobile-phone makers are probably grumbling to themselves, "We have some great multifunctional products out there, too — and they’re easier to use than ever! Why doesn't anyone pay attention to us?" Well, the easiest way to get the media's attention (and the consumer's) is to stop diluting your best models with 20-plus other mediocre models. In order to compete against Apple, electronics companies should start be throwing many of their existing products out the window. Click below for the full plan.

Choice Is Bad

Apple is going to sell one phone. Well, technically, it's going to sell two phones: one with 8 gigabytes of memory, and one with 4. What does Motorola have to be afraid of? After all, it sells eight different kinds of RAZRs, along with about 31 other phones (from the KRZR, SLVR, PEBL and ROKR to the mysteriously named m900, L2, i836 and W315). That's enough to give Moto significant shelf space in any store and provide options for just about any cell-phone user out there. But that's exactly why the company is probably shaking in its boots.

Why would a user want to choose between 39 Motorola phones when he knows he can, for a premium, pick up the iPhone and be assured of getting a well-designed, attractive, and high-quality product (assuming, of course, that the iPhone turns out to be all of those things)? Cell-phone manufacturers need to start making fewer phones, not more, if they want to compete with the new kid on the block.

Imagine what would happen if Motorola decided that its next phone — let's call it the LAZR — were to be its only phone. The basic LAZR would be a quality affair priced at $250, but for $450 you could get a tricked-out version that had all of the texting, e-mailing, Web-browsing, and music-playing features that a user could want. And for the grandparents, there would be a LAZRlite: a stripped-down, very simple $79 version of the product that could only make phone calls and accept voicemail.

Does this pricing model sound familiar? These three versions of the phones would be it. Motorola would cut everything else out of its line and put together some great advertising campaigns. Provided that the phone was better than the RAZR, the popular question would change from, "Are you getting an iPhone or some other model?" to, "Which kind of customer are you — Apple or Motorola?"

Off the Shelf

Every company, from Pringles to Sony, worries about shelf space. Kellogg's knows that only so many people are going to buy Froot Loops with Marshmallows, but it also knows that every box the supermarket stocks is one more Post cereal that can't fit. While this sort of theorizing may be important in the grocery store, it's outdated for online retailers like Amazon. And more and more consumers are finding that the best place to buy electronics is online. And when I'm searching for something new, I sort by "avg. customer review," not by brand. Or I'll read a review, and Google the best-looking product: press coverage and word of mouth goes a long way when you're talking about online sales, while variety isn't as easy to notice.

Phones Are Just the Beginning

Apple provides a welcome respite from choosing among products with miniscule differences. Yes, you can customize, but if you buy one of the company's three standard desktops, you'll get a great computer for the price. More and more, consumers are responding to this pitch. They're even willing to pay a premium for simplicity: not just fewer buttons, but fewer products.

Canon has two lines of digital cameras: EOS SLRS and PowerShot digital cameras. I'm actually in the market for a digital camera, and Canon has a good reputation as brands go. But the PowerShot line has 23 cameras! Two of the highest-end models couldn't be more different: One is a 6-megapixel camera with a 12x zoom (the S3 IS), while the other is a 10-MP model with a 6x zoom (the G7). Other choices in the line are nearly indistinguishable: compare the SD750. The average consumer would have to do a lot of research in order to know he'd bought the right camera. It's no wonder that after only four months on the market, some of the company's newer cameras are already being sold at a 40% discount.

Creating the Icon

But Canon could really break away from the Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Kodak pack if it sold fewer cameras, if it came forward and said, "There are a lot of cameras in this price range, but this is the best and best-looking one." Other companies would be left scrambling. On the other hand, if Apple, or some other, new company does that instead, Canon will be left bumbling about how great its cameras are, but with such a poorly curated line, consumers will gravitate towards the brand that makes the purchase easier.

What about a single laptop that's good for every personality, a specific camera that will suit every possible individual need? What Apple's done is to ask: Just how different are consumers' needs? There will always be companies out there making niche products, but those are not the companies that capture the popular imagination. And what about the concern that consumers don't want to be sitting on the subway next to someone with the same gadget? Well, the iPod blew that notion away. The cool kids have decreed individuality overrated. Manufacturers should stop being such squares. — S.E. Kramer

Apple iPhone's Slippery Secret

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Just how slippery is Apple's (AAPL) iPhone?

Scattered reports from people who have put their hands on pre-release models say that its main problem is not the rumored battery life shortfall, but the sleek, slippery surface.

I handled one for about 15 minutes in January and didn't find it any more prone to flying out of my hands -- or my shirt pocket -- than an iPod. But others who have spent more time with it say different.

Alexandros Roussos recently interviewed a "tipster who had the chance to play with the device for a longer time than just a few minutes." He reported on MacScoop that its real-world battery performance would "surprise us," and, in fact, exceed Apple's posted specs: up to 5 hours talk/video/browsing, and up to 16 hours audio playback.

"Overall," he added, "our source found the iPhone awesome but he mentioned, as a sole negative point, that the material used on the device's case makes it feel even more slippery than the iPod and will probably require the purchase of a protective skin or case so as to avoid unintentionally dropping it." (link)

I must say that in my encounter with the iPhone during an off-the-record briefing in January, the image of the jewel-like device cracked like a $500 Humpty Dumpty on the sidewalk popped unbidden into my mind. So I asked the Apple executive who was demoing it (and who asked to remain unnamed), if he would mind dropping it on the floor.

"Sure, give me yours," he said.

We handed him the iPhone Apple had passed out for the editors to play with. He promptly threw it on the carpeted floor, where it bounced a couple times, came to a stop and kept on ticking. But would it survive a five-foot drop onto a concrete floor, we wondered?

"Buy one of your own and try it."

Apple hunts flash memory for iPod, iPhone

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Apple is attempting to secure huge orders for flash memory components for iPods and iPhones

Jonny Evans

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iPods prices may stop falling as Apple addresses climbing flash memory prices, reports imply.

Grappling with a likely shortage in flash memory supplies, Apple is currently discussing a high volume purchase of the component with Samsung, a report claims.

According to DigiTimes, the two firms have been in talks in South Korea in order to arrange a large purchase of flash memory chips, for use in "all iPods and iPhones from June to year-end 2007," the report explains.

Apple is reportedly attempting to secure 400-500 million 4GB flash memory chips from the company – that's 10-15 per cent more than the order already booked between the two companies, the report explains.

The world's largest manufacturer of flash memory chips, Samsung apparently is not completely certain it will be able to meet Apple's flash memory demands, and is also concerned that any decline in iPod sales, or disappointment in iPhone sales, could lead to an oversupply of flash memory in future, impacting unit prices.

Apple is engaged in similar discussions with Hynix Semiconductor, the report explains.

Apple released its financial results this week, confirming a dramatic increase in gross margins on the basis of falling component prices, including of flash memory.

However, Apple also warned that margins will likely shrink in the current quarter as a result of climbing flash memory prices. Hynix Semiconductor recently warned that it expects flash memory prices to climb 20 per cent in the current quarter.

iPhone will auto update with new software apps

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Posted in Apple iPhone by Graeme Atkinson on 26 Apr 2007

Speaking to analysts and members of the press on a conference call yesterday, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has announced that the iPhone will receive auto updates free of charge once it is launched. Apparently Apple will be adding new software applications and upgrades throughout the lifetime of the iPhone.

Oppenheimer stated that Apple wanted to provide customers with the "greatest possible experience" and that they were "taking this bold step to leverage what we do best".

Apple will be tracking income from the iPhone using monthly reports from Cingular/AT&T and will then be able to issue upgrades as appropriate. Apple also told listeners to expect an announcement regarding how the iPhone will be sold via the Apple.com website.

Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook wouldn't be drawn on questions about the volume of iPhones Apple were producing prior to launch, stating "It's very difficult to tell what demand is until you're shipping the product".

The iPod + the Mac + the iPhone = A virtuous cycle

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Posted Apr 26th 2007 8:30AM by Eric Buscemi

Filed under: Earnings reports, Apple Inc (AAPL)

Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) virtuous cycle continues to build momentum. The iPod brought Apple back to life, a new life which the company is using to drive positive results for its Mac products.

Mac shipments were up 32%, three times the PC industry growth rate. Apple saw 79% growth in notebooks and has inventories under control at three to four weeks.

The Mac is now growing rapidly, and the next thing, the iPhone, is coming to market in June. Apple appears to be working through the software glitches, the product should be ready to ramp by the holiday season.

Additionally, Apple is introducing the Apple TV.

While there are always potential chinks in the armor in the fast moving technology industry, it appears the momentum at Apple continues. I'd stay with this rocket-ship of a stock.

Cingular's smartphone sales dip ahead of iPhone

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By Katie Marsal

Published: 11:00 AM EST

Cingular retail stores are already experiencing a slow down in sales of their high-end handsets ahead of iPhone, according to investment research firm PiperJaffray, which on Thursday raised its price target on shares of Apple to a new high of $140.

"We believe that the iPhone will benefit from this pent-up demand," analyst Gene Munster told Apple investors after conferring with fellow analyst Mike Walkley, who covers the mobile space for PiperJaffray.

Munster's checks reveal a robust market for high-end handsets in the above-$300 range. For instance, he said Nokia's N95 model is selling extremely well in Europe for €450 (over $600 US), where Apple remains on track to launch iPhone later this year.

"Therefore, our checks suggest that demand for the iPhone will be high at launch and will continue to grow as Apple expands the product into international markets," the analyst wrote in a report summarizing Apple's stellar March quarter results, announced Wednesday.

According to his analysis, upside potential to Apple's per-share earnings have not yet peaked given that he believes the company is entering "what will be the 3 strongest quarters" in its history. In his note to clients, Munster said iPhone, mid-year product launches, and continued Mac market share gains will combine as catalysts for the expected growth.

"The more important point is that Apple has the pole position as it capitalizes in a shift in computer buying behavior," he wrote. "It is obvious consumers want computing devices that are focused on entertainment and creativity."

Thus far, Munster says his team of analysts have not run across any credible competitive threats to Apple's core markets. For instance, Microsoft's Zune, which was conceived to steal share from the iPod, "is a flop." Similar, Dell and HP have failed to deliver PCs that rival the Mac," he said.

PiperJaffray remains confident that over the next several quarters Apple will hold its massive lead in portable audio and grow share in the personal computer market.

"We believe Apple's performance is sustainable for 3 reasons," Munster wrote. "1) we expect gross margin to stabilize above 30 percent in [the second half of the year] due to favorable component pricing and level product pricing; 2) Apple is entering three of its strongest product cycles ever with the iPhone, Apple TV and Leopard; 3) Apple continues to innovate and we do not expect the pace of innovation to slow."

For these reasons and others, the analyst raised his price target on shares of the Cupertino-based company to $140, up from $123.

Apple's Green Road Paved With iPhone Takers

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By Nicholas Carlson

Apple (Quote)is in a good position to take on the challenge of reshaping its business model around the upcoming iPhone, financial analysts said after the company announced its earnings yesterday.

Apple reported a net profit of $770 million. That's 87 cents a share and 23 cents above Wall Street forecasts. Sales rose 20 percent to $5.26 billion, beating $5.17 billion estimates.

While Apple's iPod sales of 10.55 million units and current quarter guidance did not meet estimates, Mac sales of 1.52 million units sent the stock 8 percent higher in after-hours trading. Shares gained another 4.59 percent in the morning.

"With the introduction of iPhone, Apple's model will include a growing dose of subscription revenue, adding an increasing annuity base that Apple will be using as a means of future demand generation through feature introductions," according to a report from Goldman Sachs.

"While we have taken down our revenue forecasts to account for this, we have raised our corresponding earnings and, in both cases, we still see considerable room for upside."

The analyst firm's forecast comes amid Apple's board of directors' response to accusations from former CFO Fred Anderson that CEO Steve Jobs approved Anderson's actions leading to the company's options backdating scandal.

"We are not going to enter into a public debate with Fred Anderson or his lawyer," the board said in a statement. "Steve Jobs cooperated fully with Apple's independent investigation and with the government's investigation of stock option grants at Apple."

Anderson was Apple's CFO from 1996 to 2004. He resigned from Apple's board in October 2006 after the company released results from an internal investigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Anderson, but yesterday it announced a settlement with Anderson after he agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine.

Five Reasons Why Apple's iPhone is Better Than the Rest

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Paul Kedrosky writes why he thinks the Apple iPhone is better than the rest....

Paul Kedrosky submits: Having now wandered in the wilds of various cellphones over the last few months, I am re-reminded why Apple's (AAPL) iPhone is underestimated. I have a Palm (PALM) Treo 700, a Research in Motion (RIMM) Blackberry 8800, and a Samsung TV phone, and they all suck. Here are five things that bug me about the abovementioned trio, and that favor the iPhone:

Mobile browers are awful. The Treo isn't bad, and it's the best of the above three, but the Samsung and Blackberrry browsers should be outlawed. They are that bad. They are so bad that Blackberry users' opinions about mobile services, mobile startups, etc. should be summarily dismissed.

iPhone: Browser is reputedly very good.

Touch screens rule. Once you've gone touch you'll never go back. Treo has it, Blackberry doesn't, and it drives me nuts. Trying to use a thumb wheel to touch a specific screen element is like dancing about architecture. It's briefly mildly entertaining, but ultimately stupid.

iPhone: Touchscreen. 'Nuff said.

Big screens rule. The Samsung screen is teensy and irritating. The Blackberry and Treo screens are bigger and better, but I want more. I hate having online real estate so crunched. It feels so ... 640x480.

iPhone: Big, bright mofo screen.

Mobile fonts are shit. The Samsung and Blackberry have fonts that only an MS-DOS fan could love. They are clunky, brain-battering and largely unreadable. The Treo fonts are marginally better, but they're still woeful.

iPhone: Lovely fonts, at least in pictures. Would design-obsessed SteveJ ever have it otherwise?

Mobile interfaces are thoughtless. The bizarro combination of escape key and menu key on the Blackberry -- neither of which are labeled in a way that gives any indication what they do -- is maddening. Controls are highly modal, which means something that works one way in one app works totally differently in another. A little thoughtful UI design would transform the market in a heartbeat.

iPhone: You can accuse Apple of many things, but thoughtless interfaces aren't one of them.

Apple's iPhone and The Future of Nokia

Source

Sramana Mitra writes why she thinks Nokia is going to continue to dominate the low-end mobile market, but might have to struggle to stay in the high-end market.

Sramana Mitra submits: We have been discussing the impact of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone on the rest of the cellular handset and laptop ecosystem. Frank Levinson wrote an important piece when the iPhone was first announced, which you should read for context.

We have said that Research in Motion's (RIM) target market (Prosumer, SmartPhone with Integrated Messaging) is very different from the iPhone's (Consumer, SmartPhone with Media Player focus). Nokia (NOK), however, has a lot more overlap with the iPhone’s target audience.

iPhone’s Innovations:

1. The use of OSX – this choice empowers the device to be able to run Safari, mail and widgets. It continues to unify the Apple product line, not fragment it.
2. The use of a new consumer user interface [UI] and the deletion of so many buttons and choices (this was what we did about 16 years ago with Windows and 23 years ago with the first Mac and now we are doing it again).
3. The realization that Moore’s law scaling of silicon is continuing and this makes the possibilities of integration infinite.

Nokia’s Strength: Hardware/Silicon Integration.

Nokia knows how to do this well, by itself, and through its partnerships with Semiconductor vendors. The key technology in question so far has been System-in-Package (SiP). More on the semiconductor side later.

Nokia’s Weakness: The Symbian OS.

In 2006, Symbian was estimated to have a 73% share of the smartphone OS market, yet ABI Research forecasts that it will fall to 46% by 2012, due to strong competition coming most notably from Linux, but also from Windows Mobile. At the moment, Microsoft (MSFT), Palm (PALM) and RIM each have very low market share in worldwide Smartphone OS. The MAC OS competition has not even started yet!

According to ABI, Nokia has maintained its leadership position with a 56.4% share of the 70.9 million units shipped in 2006. Nokia sold 40 million smartphones in 2006, compared to 28.5 million in 2005. Motorola also had a strong 2006 and occupied the second position with 8.5% market share, driven by the success of its Linux-based devices in China, most notably the MING. The Prosumer segment of that market should remain largely unaffected by the entry of the iPhone. The Consumer Smartphone, however, WILL get affected, and this is likely to impact Nokia’s market share, especially in the high end of the market.

Unresolved question: Will the market accept the two-hand iPhone user experience, or stay with the one-hand Palm-Blackberry-Nokia interface?

Resolved question: Apple will win the design challenge, still a key determining factor in which product consumers would choose to buy. The others will need to win on other criterion, besides design.

Emerging Markets: Nokia’s Strength

Nokia has many other strengths. Foremost is their absolute dominance of the low-end market. It dominates India, the fastest growing Mobile market in the world, with 79% market share. iPhone is not even an issue in this market because of its astronomical price-point.

Overall, it seems to me that only a very small sliver of Nokia’s business will get impacted by the iPhone in the foreseeable future. However, as Nokia and other handset makers struggle with the atrociously low margin business they’re in, they will all try to move up the value chain and get more of the high-end, higher margin products into their mix. This is where the iPhone is a threat to Nokia’s future, because that small sliver of the market is a rather critical piece of Nokia’s equation

Sr. iPhone Support Rep. - Jobs available

Apple is hiring support Reps. for the iPhone. Aftercollege.com has a page on 'Sr. iPhone Support Rep.' for the iPhone......

Apple, Inc.
Position: Sr. iPhone Support Rep., Applications Due in May
Company: Apple, Inc.
Location: Austin, TX
Type: Full time
Number of positions:
Monetary compensation: .

Job Description:
Apply today. Training classes begin in May.

The Sr. iPhone Support Representative is responsible for answering questions for Apple customers and partners. Viewed as an escalation point, the candidate should be able to provide prompt, reliable, and accurate information to customers while maintaining effective communications during conversations by adjusting to the pace and technical level of the customer. The preferred person will be responsible for ensuring first call resolution in a timely manner, while maintaining the highest level of quality support in every customer interaction.

Duties:

• Handles escalated questions via the telephone addressing both hardware and software related issues.
• Reporting/escalating issues through the appropriate channels.
• Effectively communicating information with his/her team members and customers alike.
• Diagnosing and providing a path to resolving data service inquiries related to GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technologies.
• Proactively identifies ways to avoid recurrence of customer issues by regularly improving the processes, reviewing technical articles, and recommending changes.
• Interfacing with local team management and internal and external partners.
• Multitasking through multiple systems while troubleshooting with customers.
• Accurately logging all interactions via Apple’s CRM system.
• Achieving call center metrics including average handle time, customer availability as well as schedule adherence and conformance.
• Additional responsibility as business needs dictate.

Qualifications:
Various degrees of experience and education will be considered provided the candidate's application demonstrates the following requirements:

Technical Associate Degree and/or 2-3 years related experience in one or more of the following fields:

• Network
• Customer Service/Support Environment
• Information Technology/Help Desk
• Wireless voice/data technical support
• Previous experience working in a call center is required
• Excellent Customer Service Skills
• Strong written, verbal and organization skills
• Leadership skills in an area of technical specialty
• Ability to use critical thinking and logic skills to isolate and resolve technical issues in a timely manner
• Superior time management and prioritization skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Microsoft applications such as Office or Outlook
• Ability to navigate in the Windows environment – such as getting basic system information, explorer navigation
• Basic understanding of hardware configurations – such as USB vs. Firewire
• Knowledge of Device manager –( Knowing when something is connected/mounted)
• Knowledge of program files and system files in Windows
• Experience with troubleshooting external devices in Windows
• Understanding specific media file types used by iTunes/iPod/iPhone – AAC, Mp3, Wav, mpeg4
• Basic installation and removal of application in Windows.
• Experience with iTunes in Windows
• Must act independently and be self-motivated
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Must act independently and be self-motivated
• Ability to work in dynamic situations

Contact Information (click here)

Is the Apple iPhone a copy of the Deeda Pi..........?

...or is it the other way around......
A couple of days back there was a flurry of articles that claimed that the Deeda Pi was an Apple iPhone clone. Brevisys (the makers of the Deeda Pi) even has a press release saying that they're flattered that Deeda Pi clones have been unveiled

From the Press report......

January 15, 2007

Kiku, Menx, and Pi were unveiled ahead of the "Prada Phone" and iPhone, but can Brevisys Technologies compete directly against Apple and LG? The Pi touch phone was under development since 2004-2005 and has many features the other touch phones simply lack. The answer will have to wait for a head-to-head comparison against the devices this summer. However: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

....and today I received a mail from Roger Podactor saying

Hi Paul,

Please hear me out:

I know you've heard about the deeda Pi --- because while looking for
more information on it I came across your blog entry about it. A lot
of people (not just you) have put this company and their products in
the "copycat/rip-off" category, but I am a tech junky that still
thinks that if it is ever produced it can compete and do well because
of its online integration and open development features...

So anyway, there are two things that I have been trying to figure out
about deeda Inc. :

1. Why would a company (deeda) so boldly copy the iPhone and call it their own?

2. What if they are telling the truth? What if the Pi was unveiled
ahead of the iPhone and even developed and designed before the iPhone?
What if Apple's design unintentionally actually copies deeda's Pi?

So now here is the scoop of the year:

I went on to the parent company's website to learn more about their
products and development, and came across a link to an interview of
the founder in the Brevisys Technologies (www.brevisys.com) press
section. It was done by the Boston Globe -- so its obviously a legit
interview and story.

The founder's name is Atif Khan btw--- and in this interactive online
interview ---- I was about to close the presentation and move on but
then suddenly in the middle of this slide show presentation the words
"Apple Juice" caught my attention....

I started staring at the dry erase board behind him and freaked out.
The entire concept and development for the Pi (or what everyone is
calling the iPhone) is written out in detail behind him... you have to
look carefully, but you can clearly see: Touch interface, Phone,
Multimedia, WiFi, UWB, and a couple other telling points. Then in
other pictures there's an industrial design spec sheet for the device
--- can't tell if it is an early Pi, Menx or Kiku -- in another image
you see a rendered picture (looks black and dark blue) sitting on the
table... The device has no buttons as advertised and retains the
original look of the online demos at deeda.com. There are a few other
pictures that might be the OLED or LCD display bread boards....

Why do I think this is huge?

1. The article was published last summer. Hence these pictures were
probably taken by the Boston Globe sometime in the beginning of 2006
or maybe earlier.

2. Their claim to have been working on this since 2005 is basically
true. And the proof is hidden right there in the open! You can file
a provisional patent for a year and then file your actual
non-provisionals off from it at any time during that one year period.
The filing dates for the non-provisionals would then correspond to the
original filing date of the provisional. So what if the REAL company
that might be in trouble is Apple? And what if it's going to be
Brevisys Technologies that files a suit after their patent issues?

3. Also, how can this public knowledge affect Apple's filings from
September of 2006? Can this be considered prior art by the USPTO?

I think it would make one hell of a story either way. The real
company that invented and created the "iPhone" interface and design
should at least get credit. Or if anything deeda shouldn't be called
copycats/ripoffs like the other companies who just showed up after the
Apple unveiling. (deeda's demo was presented on New Years not April
btw). Last but not least, lets give the underdogs a chance, as cool
as I think Apple is... since when did we all jump on the big money
corporate bandwagon?
Thanks,

Roger Podactor
San Francisco, CA

The direct link to the interview is here and the pictures from the
interview that have all the juicy secrets and proof are attached:

http://www.boston.com/news/special/audio_slideshows/10_20_30/html/page1.html

So at this stage, I have no idea which product is a copy of another, but would Brevisys which seems like a genuine company really be lying when they say they did their product development during 2004-2005 ? Maybe not.

There have been instances in history when products that look similar to each other have been released, and this could be one of them.

Some pics Roger Podactor sent me of Atif Khan and the iPhone concept in the background apparently taken before the iPhone release....



Look at the figure drawn on the paper in the picture below......

Apple's iPhone and the Future of Research in Motion

Source

Sramana Mitra submits: Frank Levinson wrote an important piece when Apple's (AAPL) iPhone was first announced. As we approach the launch of the iPhone, I would like to review what is going on in the rest of the ecosystem, and how the players are preparing.

Let’s start with Research in Motion (RIMM). The company has recently announced results, and after a strong 6 month run up, the stock dropped sharply because results met, but did not exceed expectations. [52-wk range: $67.95 - $171.46]

So what are the expectations around RIM vis a vis the iPhone?

The iPhone, for the next two years I believe, is going to be a classical Consumer product and build upon its iPod legacy, focusing squarely on the media player capabilities (Let’s call this the Consumer Smartphone).

RIM, on the other hand, is a classical Prosumer/Enterprise product, where the competitor is less Apple, more Palm (PALM), Motorola (MOT) and Nokia (NOK). This means, that RIM and Apple are by and large not competing for the same customer base. RIM, in its segment (Prosumer SmartPhone), is the second most popular vendor, behind Nokia, having overtaken Palm.

Apple’s innovations: 3 things –

1. The use of OSX – this choice empowers the device to be able to run Safari, mail and widgets. It continues to unify the Apple product line, not fragment it.
2. The use of a new consumer user interface [UI] and the deletion of so many buttons and choices (this was what we did about 16 years ago with Windows and 23 years ago with the first Mac and now we are doing it again).
3. The realization that Moore’s law scaling of silicon is continuing and this makes the possibilities of integration infinite.

These three innovations offer up the opportunity for Apple to become the laptop replacement.

The longer term story may, therefore, become very different, as Apple expands out of the Consumer segment, and uses its “Ultimate Convergence Device” positioning to go after small laptops, NOT just the SmartPhones. This would require them to address issues like an enterprise class messaging system, the core differentiating function for the RIM Blackberry lines. However, that is still probably a few years out.

While on the hardware side, Moore’s Law is driving all the mobile handset vendors towards hyper-integration, the OS and application layer capabilities on each system is dramatically different. MAC OS certainly has the most power. But it doesn’t work very well with the rest of the enterprise software ecosystem. Not yet, anyway. This will be the reason for Apple’s limited penetration in the Prosumer segment.

There is one more unknown in this equation yet. Apple’s bet on a touchscreen ONLY User Interface requires a 2-hand usage model. Blackberry is a one-hand device. How will the market respond to the change?

Finally, pricing. Apple’s pricing strategy positions the iPhone against the laptop, not the Smartphones. I don’t think all the Smartphone customers will abandon their laptops quite so rapidly, even though, they would eventually very much like to do so.

Eventually, RIM’s competition is not only going to be Apple and the iPhone. It will also be the laptop vendors, and that is when the game will start to get really exciting. And this is also why, I don’t consider RIM a long term Hold. It could, however, be an excellent acquisition target for Dell (DELL), especially, who desperately needs a convergence device strategy, and needs to buy either RIM or Palm.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to keep the industry on its toes, and every few months, sends everyone back to their drawing boards.

Apple iPhone Rocks Cell Phone Industry

Source

The latest ChangeWave consumer cell phone survey shows the startling impact the Apple (AAPL) iPhone continues to have on the cellular industry. The survey of the ChangeWave Alliance reveals the huge ripple effect created by the upcoming June release of the iPhone. The survey also uncovered an additional surge in demand for the iPhone if the proposed price point of the device is lowered.

Rockville, MD (PRWEB) April 24, 2007 -- The latest ChangeWave consumer cell phone survey shows the startling impact the Apple (AAPL) iPhone continues to have on the cellular industry. The survey of 3,489 members of the ChangeWave Alliance - conducted April 4-10 - reveals the huge ripple effect created by the upcoming June release of the iPhone.

Nearly one-in-ten respondents (9%) say they are 'Very' or 'Somewhat Likely' to buy the new iPhone once it becomes available in June. Another 7% of respondents say they are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift for someone else.

These results are nearly identical to ChangeWave's previous consumer cell phone survey conducted in January, and provide strong evidence that Apple should exceed its iPhone sales goals for 2008 - provided the device lives up to consumer expectations.

The survey also uncovered an additional surge in demand for the iPhone if the proposed price point of the device is lowered.

How far would the price have to drop to turn those who are not considering the iPhone into potential buyers? Another 10% say they'd consider buying a 4GB iPhone if the price falls to the $200-$299 range, while 20% said they'd consider the 8GB model in this price range.

The iPhone's looming impact on cell phone manufacturers becomes clear when you compare current market share with planned purchases for the next six months.

Currently, Motorola (33%) is the leading manufacturer among the cell phone owners surveyed - with LG (15%) second and Nokia (14%) third. However, when we focus on planned future buying, the startling impact of the iPhone becomes apparent:

For the second consecutive survey, Motorola's future share among consumers has registered a dramatic decline - falling from 33% in October 2006 to just 17% currently.

"As more and more consumers switch to the iPhone, we are going to see a huge migration from cell phone manufacturers like Motorola to the hipper, cooler iPhone," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing. "And, because of Apple's deal with AT&T's Cingular as their exclusive service provider for the iPhone, we are also going to see a big migration away from Verizon and other cellular providers."

Speaking of service providers, the current survey shows Verizon (30%) holding the market share lead among respondents. Second place Cingular (27%) - Apple's exclusive service provider for the United States - has gained 1-point on Verizon since the previous survey in January, while Sprint/Nextel (12%) has dropped 1-point to a new low.

But in terms of momentum going forward we find a dramatic turn of events. Cingular (28%; up 6-points) has surged ahead of Verizon in terms of future planned buying, and is now the top choice among those likely to switch service providers.

For a summary of the 'Apple iPhone Rocks Cell Phone Industry' report, simply click the following link: http://alliance.changewave.com/iphone2.htm

The ChangeWave Alliance is a network of over 10,000 highly qualified business, technology, and medical professionals in leading companies of select industries--credentialed experts who spend their everyday lives working on the frontline of technological change. ChangeWave surveys its Alliance members on a range of business and investment research and intelligence topics, collects feedback from them electronically, and converts the information into proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.

Motorola will be hit hardest by iPhone

Source

The latest consumer cell phone survey from research company ChangeWave shows just how much impact the iPhone is going to have on the mobile industry.

Apparently the iPhone release will have a huge effect on the industry and, if the price point is reduced in line with recent rumours, there will be an additional surge in demand.

Nine percent of respondents are “very” or “somewhat likely” to buy the iPhone in June while another 7 percent are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift. The research also concluded, unsurprisingly, that the Apple deal with Cingular would result in a landslide migration away from Verizon and other networks.

In conclusion the report advises that Steve Jobs should increase his modest sales predictions, assuming that the iPhone is as good as everybody expects when it launches.

Consumers are hoping for a price drop when the iPhone is launched and an extra 10 percent would purchase the device if the price was reduced below $300 for the 4GB version. Twenty percent would buy the 8GB version if it was at this price meaning an amazing 36% of respondents would by an 8GB iPhone for themselves or as a gift if it was priced at $299 or less.

Motorola was the leading manufacturer among the mobile phone users taking part in the survey but the prediction is that their market share will fall to around 17% thanks to the impact of the iPhone.

AT&T to target iPhone to enterprise

Source

Door: Nancy Gohring IDG News Service

AT&T Inc. plans to market the iPhone to business users in addition to consumers but analysts aren't recommending that enterprises supply workers with the phones.

Cingular, which was acquired by AT&T, recently decided that the iPhone will appeal to business users and the operator is now working hard to ensure that its backend enterprise billing and support systems will accommodate the device when it ships, said a source familiar with the company's plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An AT&T spokesman said he couldn't comment on the iPhone beyond when it will become available and its price. The phone is expected to become available in June. It will cost US$499 or $599 depending on the memory size. Initially, AT&T will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone, although other service providers are expected to eventually start selling it as well.

The idea of marketing the iPhone as an enterprise product baffles some analysts.

If AT&T announces that it will be marketing the phone to enterprise customers, "we'd be against it," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner, who said he hasn't heard of such a plan from the operator. "We'd immediately tell our customers that'd be a very serious mistake."

No matter what kind of reputation a vendor has, if it's making its first phone, Dulaney would be unlikely to recommend it. "Building a phone is one of the most difficult things to do," he said.

Also, the iPhone is expected to have a number of shortcomings for business users, he said. For example, it doesn't have a removable battery. "You'd be crazy to buy without that," Dulaney said. The phone has multiple processors, which consumes more battery life than single processors, he said.

It also comes with a touch screen and no buttons, making it difficult for users to dial while driving, he noted.

He suspects that enterprises will likely decide against the iPhone for similar reasons that many decide not to standardize on Mac computers. Even if the iPhone is attractive, like the Mac, they'll choose BlackBerry or Windows Mobile devices because those have more software application options, he said.

That's one reason that Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis, also thinks the iPhone won't be a good option for enterprise customers. Apple has said that the iPhone will run on an OS X-based operating system and told Greengart that enterprises won't be able to write applications for the phone, he said. "Companies like to extend corporate apps to the mobile space and in order to do that you need an open OS," he said. Mobile operating system developers like Windows, Symbian and BlackBerry enable third parties to write applications based on their software.

Since the iPhone isn't available yet, there's a chance that it could launch with applications that might appeal to business users, such as support for corporate e-mail, but Greengart said he'd be surprised if it did.

Without such corporate applications, enterprises would be buying their employees a device with plenty of storage for their digital music collections. "Could a company deploy this? They could but they'd be paying for storage and for something intended for use as a consumer device," Greengart said.

How far away is Blackberry software for the iPhone?

Source
Posted April 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 PM by JG Mason

Coming this fall, RIM will unveil software that will turn Windows Mobile 6 smart phones into a Blackberry clone, complete with push email, icons and 3rd party apps. RIM says there are benefits to running the virtualization software on a Windows based phone.

This is all well and fine, but pretty quickly I asked myself, “how far out is the iPhone version?” iPhone naysayers love to point out that it is not a business phone. Can Blackberry software inside change that? Would a flashy phone that achieves the same amount of email addictiveness be a hit with management? RIM confirmed they are working on supporting other platforms but would not confirm which ones. (Blackberry already offers this software for Symbian and Palm-based Treos.)

Anyhow, I believe creating a virtual Blackberry would have been bigger news about a year ago. Today, Microsoft is offering push email with its Exchange servers and the iPhone will have it from Yahoo. But the idea of brining a simple service that everyone knows is attractive and I suspect RIM will do well with it, as now companies are not tied to the RIM devices.

Are we about to see some convergence in corporate America, no longer mandated to carry two devices? Will business folk downsize to just a smartphone vs. todays seemingly standard of a Blackberry and a phone if it still means constant connectivity? It looks to me like the folks at RIM are working hard to remain relevant; and that could be the answer.

Apple could be onto a good thing with the iPhone

Source
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:30 pm

A recent Piper Jaffray study reports that 84% of the students surveyed knew about the iPhone and that 25% said that they would purchase one at the standard retail price of $500. Apple could be onto a really good thing with the iPhone.

Analysts have been predicting that iPhone sales for 2007 would be around 660,000 units, with some 4 million units being shipped in 2008, but if this recent survey is anything to go by, these figures could be very conservative.

However, there is a difference between saying that you'll buy something for $500 and actually buying it. Also, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the iPhone. Sure, it looks good and no doubt will exude that Apple "cool," but I'm interested in things like battery life and usability. Teens make a lot of use of SMS test messaging and I'm still not sold on the ergonomics of a hard touchscreen for fast text input. "Sexy" wears off with cell phones real fast, but it wears off incredibly quickly if the phone can't handle the basics well.

I don't believe that the price will put people off, especially the young. Handsets such as the Motorola RAZR cost about $500 when new and they sold. If the iPhone is as good as Steve Jobs says it is, then there's no doubt that there are phones on the market that cost more and do less.

Personally, no matter how good it is, I'd hold off until at least the next version. Hopefully by then Apple will have ironed out the kinks.

Two-sided UpStage - iPhone has a two-faced challenger

Source

By Gary Krakow
Columnist
MSNBC
Updated: 9:17 a.m. ET April 23, 2007

While the cell phone industry awaits the release of Apple's iPhone, Samsung has come up with an ingenious design for an all-in-one, wireless device. And although being called two-faced is not usually complementary, in this case, it's an apt description for the company's new handset.

Samsung's UpStage, marketed by Sprint, features a cell phone display and dial pad on one side; on the other, there’s a larger screen with controls for the built-in MP3 music player.
Everything about the UpStage is cool. The device itself is small and sleek — 1.73 by 4.07 by 0.37 inches and only 2.57 ounces. The phone side has a 1.4-inch TFT display and the music player has a 2.1-inch TFT display. It operates on the Sprint CDMA and high-speed EVDO networks.

The handset’s Lithium ion battery is good for up to 2.5 hours but that’s not even half the story. The UpStage comes with a good looking
faux-leather carrying case with a large, built-in second battery inside. The phone and the case combine for a whopping 6.3 hours of talk time.

The number of features included is somewhat staggering: advanced stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3-MP camera with 5x zoom, SMS voice and text messaging, PictBridge (to print images on a compatible printer), enhanced voice recognition, speech dictation and voice memo capabilities.
Then, there are the built-in entertainment and music features. The MP3 music player is linked to the internal microSD card slot (64MB card provided). You can plug in a pair of stereo earphones (3.5mm jack) via the enclosed adapter. You've got the ability to buy/download music files from the Sprint Music Store, watch Sprint TV and On Demand content (which includes news, sports, weather and entertainment) and stream music with access to Sirius, VH1, MTV and Sprint Internet radio stations.

Actually using the double-sided handset is an interesting experience. Making and receiving phone calls is pretty straightforward. Changing from the phone to the music player (or vice versa) is accomplished by pressing a small FLIP button on the side panel. Turning one side on turns off the display on the other side.

The phone side works, well, like a 21st Century cell phone should. People heard me when I called. I heard them too. I appreciate phones that work when you need them. For the record, not all do.

The UpStage’s high-speed data capabilities are terrific. It’s nice to see Web pages load wirelessly and very quickly on a cell phone. Phonebook and calendar functions are on the basic side (more like a cell phone than a smartphone).
While the phone has real phone-dialing buttons and controls, the music player side has a touch-sensitive pad to handle all the features. I found these music player touch buttons are somewhat vague and difficult to control. They are especially annoying because you need to use them to control all of the phone’s internal settings. I personally prefer real buttons to virtual controls.

You control the music for the phone via Sprint’s Music Manager Software (for Windows PCs, CD included). The newly released Windows Vista refused to install on my computer (the Web installer failed in numerous tries) but the Windows XP version installed perfectly on my XP laptop.

You can download songs via the Music Manager software or directly onto the phone. Songs cost 99 cents (plus tax) for both a phone (very compressed file) and PC (less compressed MP3) download of the music file. By the way, that’s 99 cents for subscribers with the Sprint Power Vision data plan. Sprint Music Store users are not subscribed to a Power Vision plan will pay $2.50 per full-track download (and data transfer fees may also apply.)

Tiny phone file downloads sound OK on the phone’s tiny speaker. The larger downloaded files sound OK on my computer. I also transferred a few large MP3 files from CDs I have burned. They sound even better than the downloaded songs. The only annoying fault I could find with handset's music playback is that there is an unexpectedly long pause (5-6 seconds) between songs.

On the other hand, the Music Manager software automatically found all the ripped music files on my computer and easily allowed me to synchronize those songs to the phone. And I have to admit that it was fun to listen to the music — even using the phone's built-in mini-speaker. The UpStage turned out to be a neat little package for carrying everywhere you go.

The big question, though, is how the UpStart will compare to the iPhone. That’s difficult to determine until the final version of the Apple phone is released. I will say that the Samsung is very competitive. I like its size, shape and functionality.

Plus, despite what I said about the Samsung's music player controls, the UpStage has physical buttons rather than iPhone's software-only system. We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like having to constantly put your fingers on a phone’s screen to control all of its functions.

Then again, I’m guessing that Apple will come up with a clever way of overcoming any and all obstacles to combine a iPod and a smart phone. We’ll see soon enough.

The Samsung UpStage is sold by Sprint for $149 with a two-year service agreement. A $50 service credit will be available with new activations when you purchase the phone on Sprint’s Website.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Leopard Delay, iPhone Hype - Apple Knows What It Is Doing

Source

Instead of debuting Leopard at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA, this June 2007, Apple Inc. (AAPL) will release "a near final version" of Mac OS X 10.5, a sort of preview of the complete feature set at that time. Bad news? Perhaps for the fierce Mac users, but overall? Hmmm. Let me check the facts first.

iPhone is right on track – passing several required certification tests and is expected to start shipping in late June as originally planned. The device is touted to have the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has come with a price. Engineering resources at AAPL have reportedly been diverted from Leopard to the mobile device, possibly indicating the firmness of Apple's belief that the market holds tremendous promise and business opportunities for the entity.

Despite its forecast of modest sales in the initial year of release, Apple may capitalize and leverage on the hype surrounding the iPhone (e.g., integration of perceived faults of the device such as 3G technology) to eliminate any negative effect on third quarter Mac sales. However, there will still be an earnings hit for that quarter, albeit minor, and Apple knows that its stock may trade on the mobile communication device for a number of weeks.

Apple Inc. has learned well from Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) failure to generate positive buzz on Vista. Besides preventing a spill of the negatives associated with Vista's failure over to AAPL's Leopard, it is possible that Steve Jobs has realized that the Mac has been over-rated as a near-term sales driver! Thus, Jobs is positioning the iPhone for short-term cash infusion and the Leopard as the icing on the cake for the long-term haul because, after all, the complete integration of a new OS in both the enterprise and individual level takes around 10 to 12 months. And the decision to allocate resources from one division to another highlights Apple Inc.'s inherent ability to quickly move and shift talent; a lean and mean company with no bloated head count overhead. It also underscores an important fact in the industry, i.e., that a first-release product demands more resources in terms of testing and integration.

After all is said and done, one thing is crystal clear: Apple understands what it is doing. It expects modest sales (iPhone) in the first year. But wait. What if it overshoots its initial target of 10 million units? Possible? You bet! Steve Jobs has that gift of creating hype and excitement around his products and cementing it with releases perfectly in-tuned to the times. And coupled that with luck, maybe Jobs can repeat history. After all, the Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) Wii was initially laughed at (it was just a year ago that Sony's PlayStation (SNE) and Microsoft's Xbox were the king and queen of the video game industry), and everyone sneered at the iPod when it first came out (everybody said Sony's Walkman was, i.e “invincible”). Tsk.

Investment banks support Apple's decision to delay the debut of Leopard in light of the perceived future success of the iPhone. And why are they are not at all worried? As stated earlier, the delay of the Leopard is earnings driven and could be viewed as a buying opportunity. The delay is indeed a temporary setback for AAPL but, admit it or not, it is a wait designed to ensure and promote long-time success for the company and its products.

Steve Jobs firmly believes the iPhone as the key factor to drive the next phase of the company's growth. The company has a major strategic advantage over other phone manufacturers, i.e., they have iTunes and the license agreements to sell digital music from the majority of the record labels. And you better believe that AAPL will capitalize on these. And being the key driver and all, another delay is the mobile phone's release would do a significant amount of damage to the credibility of both the firm and Jobs than a temporary setback in the debut of Leopard. Do remember that the iPhone was officially introduced way back January 2007, not counting the rumors and buzz on the blogosphere. However, its commercial debut was set for June 2007, which further prolonged the wait of fierce loyal Apple followers and the rest of the world.

And why half a year, you ask. Maybe, Jobs wanted to know how Microsoft Corp. will do with its Vista, particularly the acceptance of the OS with consumers. This is very important for Apple Inc. because its Leopard was also set to be introduced in the same year as Vista's. And with the Vista threat out of the picture, Jobs and company possibly can't do anything wrong with their decision to allocate additional resources for the iPhone, ensuring that all the perceived flaws and shortcomings of the device are well taken care of. All the hype that surrounded the iPhone and the long, long wait has favored Apple and its products well...people wouldn't mind a setback in the Leopard's release but they will with the iPhone! Thus, with this strategy, the public will have their iPhone "on time" as Jobs successfully buys more time for his buddies at Apple Inc to iron out the bugs, kinks and stinks in Leopard, the OS that will bring in the money for the long haul.

And I am reiterating it again: Jobs has this gift of successfully timing his product launches in-tuned with the times. The success of the iPod has made Apple Inc believe that the sky is indeed the limit. And with a little luck and a very good marketing roadmap, the iPhone may open up another sky for AAPL.

Apple OS Sacrificed to iPhone

Source

So the rumors were right. Apple has delayed the launch of Leopard, its next-generation Mac OS X, a competitor of Microsoft Windows, until October, four months past its June 11 due date.In a statement issued late Thursday after the market closed Apple blamed it on the iPhone.Engineering resources were tight, it said, and it had to move them to the iPhone to get that out in June as planned.

According to Apple, "iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price - we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near-final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October."

"Life often presents tradeoffs," it added, "and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."

The iPhone Is Having OS Issues Again

Source

Yes. More rumors to tempt you, tease you, and taunt you with. Ars Technica is reporting in its blog that a solid inside source at Hon Hai/Foxconn says there are still a number of software/OS bugs to be worked out with the iPhone. They conclude that at best only a "trickle" of iPhones will be available at launch. The iPhone roller coaster continues its twisted, torturous ride.

Just a day after AT&T COO declares that it is expecting the iPhone to ship on time, saucy insider info has come to light that casts serious doubt on AT&T's statement of confidence. Ars Technica's unnamed source said the following: "Apple knew two months ago that Leopard was going to be delayed since all of the key engineers are now in Taipei." Um, correct me of I am wrong, but wasn't it only several weeks before the announced delay of Leopard that Apple confirmed the OS would be available on time this spring? Hmm...

On top of that, apparently 50 OS engineers are toiling 24/7 in Taipei to make sure that the iPhone ships on time. Wait. Only 50 engineers? Apple is trusting just 50 people to make sure it doesn't have egg on its face in two months? I can only hope that this is the number of people working on the software before it shifted Leopard OS engineers over to the iPhone team.

The source also laid some more woeful news upon us by saying, "It does not look feasible that Apple will be able to ship units out in May to make the shipping date in the US (June), so expect units to trickle by end of June or early July. It is doubtful they will have enough units on hand to meet the demand."

So much for AT&T COO Randall Stephenson's hope for a million of them at launch.

The only good news is that apparently the issues are not battery life related.

Youtube Video - Apple Keynote Speech - iPhone

The Apple Keynote Speech on the iPhone by Steve Jobs.... minus the non-iPhone part.
Thanks to 'xFu510nx' for the upload.
The Text for the Keynote can be found at the Bottom after the Videos
Thanks to Endgadget

9:42am - "Well today, we're introducing THREE revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen ipod with touch controls" The crowd goes wild. "The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone."

9:43am - "And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device." Tepid response on that last one, but he almost got a standing ovation on the phone. '

"An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator.... these are NOT three separate devices!"

"And we are calling it iPhone!"

"Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is..." It's a gag image, cheers.

9:44am - "Before we get into it, let me talk about a category of things ... the most advanced phones are called smartphones. They typically involve a phone, have plastic little keyboards on them, the problem is they're not so smart and they're not so easy to use. If you make a biz school 101 graph, cellphones are at the bottom... smartphones are a little smarter, but they're harder to use."

9:45am - "We don't want to make either one of these things -- we want to make a leapfrog product, smart and easy to use. This is what iPhone is." How the hell are they calling it iPhone, now? Linksys? Cisco?

9:46am - A revolutionary UI, the result of years of development -- the result of years of development." Shows Q, Treo, E62, BlackBerry."

9:47am - "The problem is really in the bottom 40% -- keyboards that are there whether you need them or not. They have control buttons that are fixed in plastic. Every app wants a different button. You can't add new buttons. How do you solve this problem? We solved this problem -- we solved it in computers 20 years ago. A bitmap screen that can display anything we want -- with a pointing device."

"So how are we going to take this to a mobile device? Get rid of all the buttons, and just make a giant screen. So how are we going to communicate? We're going to use a stylus -- no. Who wants a stylus?? Yuck!"

9:48am - "So let's not use a stylus, we're going to use the best pointing device in the world -- our fingers. We have invented a new technology called multi-tuch. It works like magic, you don't need a stylus, far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores touches, mutli-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it!

9:49am - "We have been very lucky to have brought a few revolutionary user interfaces to the market -- the mouse, the click wheel, and now Multi-Touch. Each has made possible a revolutionary product, the Mac, the iPod, and now the iPhone. We're going to build on top of that with software. Software on mobile phones is like baby-software. Today we're going to show you a software breakthrough. Software that's 5-years ahead of what's on any other phone."
"iPhone runs OS X!"

Huge cheers. "Why would we want to run such a sophisticated OS on a mobile device? It's got everything we need. Mulittasking, networking, power management, graphics, security, video, graphics, audio core animation..."

"9:51am - It let us create desktop class applications and networking, not the cripled stuff you find on most phones, these are real desktop applications." He's quoting Alan Kay -"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." "So we're bringing breakthrough software to a mobile device for the first time."

"The second thing we're doing is we've learned from the iPod, it syncs with iTunes. People know how to sync all their media with their iPod. iTunes is going to sync all your media to your iPhone -- but also a ton of data. Contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks, email accounts..."

9:52am - "We do that through iTunes." It shows 8GB on the screen.

9:52 - "The third thing -- I want to talk a little about design. We've designed something wonderful." 3.5-inch screen, highest resolution screen we've ever shipped, 160ppi. There's only one button, the "home" button.

"It's really thin, thinner than any smartphone. 11.6mm, thinner than the Q and the BlackJack, all of them. Ring and silent, volume up and down."

9:53am - "We have a 2 megapixel camera built right in, let's take a look at the top. A headset jack, 3.5mm, SIM tray, and a sleep-wake switch. Let's look at the bottom, we've got a speaker, mic input, and an iPod connector."

9:54am - We've also got some stuff you can't see -- 3 advanced sensors. It's got a proximity sensor, bring the iPhone to your ear and your display shuts off and toushccreen shuts down. Ambient light sensor -- adjusts brightness, saves power. Third thing is an accellerometer, it can tell whether you're in landscape and portraid. Let's turn it on."

Cingular.

9:55am - "Let's start with the iPod. You can touch your music. Widescreen video, you can find your music faster, gorgeous album art, bilt-in speaker, CoverFlow, why not?"

"Let me show it to you.." Demo time!

9:56am - iPhone is up on screen. He's got digital video running out. He's starting the power on, and has a gesture. Unlocks the phone by sliding finger across -- something you can't do by accident in your pocket.

9:57am - "Here's the home screen -- simple icons. Push this icon -- boom, I'm in the iPod. How do i scroll through my list of artists? I just take my finger and I just scroll." Loud cheers, people are starting to lose it a little. He's picked the Beatles... a sign of things to come?

9:58am - Everything is totally touch, big shiny icons. "I turn my unit landscape mode, and look what happens! "it goes into CoverFlow... not the fastest scrolling. We wouldn't exactly say it scrolls like butter -- but close.

9:59am -"I just pick something and play something -- it's that easy." Plays more. "It's that simple, isn't that great?"

"Alright, I can play with this for a long time." You have been, over two years you say?

"I've also got audiobooks, I've videos. I've got TV shows and movies, this is an episode from the Office..."

10:01am - Touch play control overlays... it looks really good. You can drop into widescreen or pan and scan mode. "Again, on-screen controls, is this cool?"

10:02 - "So that is the iPhone. Pretty cool, huh? We've just started. So again, touch your music, scroll through your songs and your music. "

10:03am - "It's unbelievable. Here's some album art... no matter what you like, it looks pretty doggone gorgeous. ... with onscreen controls. I was giving the demo to someone a little while ago, and I finished the demo and I said what do you think? They said 'You had me at scrolling.'"

10:04am - "We want to reinvent the phone. What's the killer app? The killer app is making calls! It's amazing how hard it is to make calls on most phones. We want to let you use contacts like never before -- sync your iPhone with your PC or mac. Visual voicemail -- wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to listen to five of them to list to the sixth? Just like email you can go directly to the voicemails that interest you. iPhone is a quad-band GSM + EDGE phone." No 3G! "We have WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0"

10:05am - "This is what it looks like when you get a call -- this
is one of our ringtones. I want to show you the phone app, photos, calendar, and SM messaging. The kind of things you'd find on a typical phone. So let's go ahead and take a look. So let's go to our phone first, the phone icon in the lower left corner? Boom, I'm in the phone. I have favorites, contacts, ..." Whoa, they put Jonathan Ive's phone number up on screen. Ummm... not smart Steve, I hope that's a PAYG line.

10:06am - "I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make the first public phone call with iPhone." It's in speakerphone mode.

10:07am - "I remember when we first started working on this..." Phil Schiller's on the other line. "Steve, I wanted to be the first call!"

10:08am - "Hey listen, Phil called, you mind if I conference him in? I just push that right here and now I've created a conference call. "Attendees scrolling up on top. "So here we are and listen, I have to get back to my keynote... Johnny, do you have anything to say on the first phone call?" "It's not to shabby, is it?"

10:10am - "Phil, thanks very much I gotta get back to the keynote now." Demoing favorites, it looks pretty easy, no doubt. "It's that simple to edit these things. I've got recents right here, I can see all my recent phone calls... and those are all the calls I've placed or have gotten. If I want to dial the phone and I'm real last century, I can dial the numbers." Dialing digits, the numbers get smaller as he dials. "Now let me show you visual voicemail, this is a collaboration which I'll talk more about later. It allows us to have random-access voicemail. Oh, there's a voicemail by Al Gore."

10:11am - Tim Cook's voicemail was of revenue results: "You know, this can wait until later..." Laughter.

10:12am - "I can have multiple SMS conversations. Here's the conversation I've been carrying on [shows QWERTY keyboard on screen]. I've got this little keyboard that prevents error, it's really fast to type on, faster than the little plastic keyboards on all those smartphones. 'Sounds great, see you there." Some predictive text it seems, he'd probably rock this thing faster with thumbs. "I can just pick up that conversation where I left off."

10:13am - "The third app I want to show you is Photos -- we also have the coolest photo management ever. Certainly on a mobile device, but I think EVER. Let me go to photos, scroll through here... to go through pictures I just swipe them. There's one that's landscape, I can just turn my device and there it is. I can swipe while I'm in landscape." Audience guy: "Awesome." Steve: "Isn't this awesome??"

10:15am - "So photos, SMS, and the phone app -- that is part of our phone package for iPhone. Really great call management, scroll through contacts with your finger, all the information at your fingertips. Favorites, last century [shows dialer], calendar, SMS texting, incredible photo app, the ability to take any picture and make it your wallpaper. I think you'll agree... we've reinvented the phone."

10:14am - I can just take my fingers and I can move them together and further apart, and make the photo bigger or smaller." HUGE applause -- touch gesturing apparently really hit a chord with these people.

10:16am - "Now let's take a look at an internet communications device. We've got some real breakthroughs here. We've got rich HTML emails on iPhone. It works with any IMAP or POP3 email service. We wanted the best web browser on a phone -- so we picked the best one in the world, Safari. We have Safari running on iPhone -- it's the first fully-usable browser on a cellphone. We have Google Maps." Big applause.

10:17am - "We have widgets, it communicates with the internet over WiFi and EDGE -- you don't have to do anything, it connects to the WiFi seamlessly."

10:18am - "It connects to any POP3 or IMAP email -- Yahoo Mail, MS Exchange, Mac Mail... POP3: Gmail, AOL mail, and most ISPs... let's highlight one, Yahoo mail. Today we are announcing Yahoo will offer free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers. This isn't just IMAP, this is push-email, same as a BlackBerry."

10:19am - "I'd like to show you mail, Google maps... I've got my inbox here, this is running live on Yahoo IMAP email. I've got inline photos, rich-text email. Let's look at another one... again, inline photos, rich text. Shopping list, rich text, pretty cool. iPhone parses out phone numbers, they're in blue and I can just call this place."

10:20am -

"I can look at my email in a split view, just like I'm on my computer. I like the fullscreen view -- we have the standard inbox, drafts, all the folders, real email just like you're used to, right here on your phone. Again, free IMAP email from Yahoo. Let me create an email message, let me show you what that's like... I just type PH and boom, address completion." He's typing slowly... but hey, he's only got one thumb since he's holding the device for the demo. We can't wait to see it in landscape.


Now I want to show you somethign incredible, I want to show you Safari running on a mobile device. I'm going to load in the NYT, rather than just give you the WAP version, we're showing you the WHOLE NYT web site. I can put this into landscape mode and there it is, I can scroll up and down here..."

The resolution is unbelievable looking from back here. We don't yet know the dimensions, but It looks unbelievably fine grained.

10:23am - "I can double-tap and it'll zoom in -- I can make this text bigger if I want to, and there it is. Isn't this cool? There is the New York Times. Unbelievable. You can look at multiple web pages as well, I just push this button in the corner, shrinks it down, and I can add a new page. Let's go to Amazon. I like looking at what DVDs are selling -- I like especially when Disney DVDs are on top."

10:24am - Page is loading, albeit a bit slowly. "And here we are, and there's a section over here, and these are the top sellers. Oh look, Als' An Inconvenient Truth is number one. Now I can go back to the NYT if I want, I can get rid of these by just hitting the X." Looks a bit like the UIQ browser, but much more slick.

10:25am - "I hope you never really know how incredible this is... it's bad out there. This is a revolution of the first order. I'm going to load stock information off the web, and right onto the phone here." Apple's shares up over $2.50. Ha.

10:26am - "I can go look at the weather, let's see what it's like outside... 49 degrees, but we'll just stay in here until it warms up." Showing various time zones, scrolling left and right. "Now, to conclude with the internet device section, I want to show you google Maps on iPhone -- it comes up and I'm going to go to Moscone West. And here we are, boom, I'm going to want a cup of coffee afterwards, so I'm going to search for StarBucks." Shows Gmaps POI info including number and address, which drops right into the dialer. He's calling StarBucks.

"Yes, I'd like to order 4000 lattes to go please. Sorry, wrong number thank you!" Huge laughs, huge applause.

10:29am - "Pinch if I want to, or I can double-tap to zoom in. Let's go somewhere else..." People are rapt, everyone is actually literally leaning forward and on the edge of their seat. We've never seen a presentation like this before.

"Isn't that incredible? Right on my PHONE! Look at this, the Eiffel tower -- isn't that incredible? Here's the last one, the colliseum in Rome."

10:30am - "All these amazing things -- this is a breakthrough internet communicator built right into iPhone." Reviewing the features... "Incredible new technology for entering text, a real browser on the phone, we can zoom in, Google maps, Widgets... it's the internet in your pocket for the first time ever. You can't really think about the internet without thinking about google."

10:31am - "From google what we have on the phone is google search built right into the browser and google maps. We've been working closely with them.. it's my pleaseure now to introduce Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO."

10:32am - Eric: "I've had the privilege of joining the board and there's a lot of relationships... if we merge the companies we can call it Applegoo -- but I'm not a marketing guy. You can actually merge without merging. Each company should do the absolutely best thing they can do every time, and he's shown it today." Huge applause, again.

10:33am - "We can take the enormous brain trust of the Apple team and the open protocols of companies like google and put them in an environment for end users. From a gooogle perspective we've pushed very hard to partner with Apple and working with many many different data service, -- Steve showed a little bit. It comes together seamlessly. This is the first of a whole new generation..."

"Steve, my congratulations to you, this product is going to be HOT."

10:34am - "As a board member you'll get one of the first ones!" Har. "You also can't think about the internet without thinking about Yahoo. We've got Yahoo search built right in, and we've got Yahoo IMAP email services. So it's my great pleasure to introduce Jerry Yang, co-founder and Chief Yahoo!"

10:35am - Jerry's up on stage, "Thank you Steve. I'm not a board member of Apple, but I'd love to have one of these too. We're really proud of Yahoo to be partnering with Apple. One of the things we're going to be doing is launching some of our new services , Yahoo Go and One Search on this phone. Mail is a killer app on the phone, Yahoo is trying to redesign the web and email experience on mobile devices. The best spam protection, address books, and calendar when you're on yahoo -- It's like BlackBerry without an Exchange Server."

10:36am - "We want to take what Apple's doing reinventing the phone and do that on the internet -- great form factors, user experiences, and UI, and translate them into a seamless internet experience. We want to take the Web 2.0 into the device world -- you have my address Steve, please send it to me."

10:37am - "It's been great having the two greatest companies on the web right down the block. Thank you guys so much, you've really helped us put the internet in the phone.

10:38am - "So, an internet communicator, an iPod, and a phone. Let's put them all together and see what you can do in a real-life scenario..."

10:39am - Another hands-on demo. "Let's see what happens when a phone call comes while listening to music -- music fades out and the call comes through."

10:40am - Phil wants photos to use as his screen saver, one of the phones from Hawaii. Go figure! Steve is emailing the photo -- shrinks, compose window pops up (he's still on the phone with Phil, mind you), and he sends it.

He ends the call, and the music pops right back up, no pauses, no fuss. Uproarious applause.

10:41am - "Today Apple is reinventing the phone. How does this stack up? Let's look at the competition..." Treo, BB, E62, Q... comparing mail, contacts, calendars, web... "Let's see the web, we tried to make it look as good as we could. And this is what you get." Comparing music...

"After today, I don't think anyone's going to look at these phones the same way agaoin."

10:42am - Accessories: stereo headphones with a tiny dongle, mic and a switch. Push it together to answer or hang up on a call.

Bluetooth accessory: headset, black and thin "incredibly small" one button on the top, automatically pairs, "It's really simple."

"It's the coolest one we've ever seen."

Battery life: "A lot of these phones have low battery life. We've managed to get 5 hours of battery of talk time, video, and browsing. 16 hours of audio playback."

10:44am - We've been pushing the state of the art in every facet of this design. We've got the multi-touch screen, miniaturization, OS X in a mobile device, precision enclosures, three advanced sensors, desktop class applications, and the widescreen video iPod. We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them."

"We've advanced the state of the art in every aspect of design. It's the ultimate digital device. So what should we price it at?"

10:46am - "Our most popular iPod is $199 -- what's a smartphone cost? Somewhere around $299 with a two year contract."

He's combined the two for a $499 for the combo-- "What should we charge for the iPhone? We should charge more for this stuff!... "

10:47am -

So how much more than $499 should we price it? We thought long and hard about it... it does so much stuff..." He's stalling for the drama. Enough Steve!

"What should we price it at? For a 4GB model we're pricing it at $499 -- no premium whatsoever.

"We're going to have an 8GB model for just $599."

10:48am - "When's it going to be available? We're shipping them in June -- we're announcing it today because we have to go get FCC approval... we thought it'd be better to introduce this today rather than let the FCC introduce this.

Europe in the 4th quarter of this year, Asia in 2008. "We've chosen Cingular."

"They're going to be our exclusive partner in the US -- it's a unique partnership though. We're going to be doing innovation together. We worked on visual voicemail, the first fruit of this collaboration. We'll be selling iPhone through our own stores and Cingular stores."

10:49am - "It's my pleasure to introduce the CEO of Cingular, Stan Sigman." Why hello Stanny boy.

"We entered into contractual agreement without ever even seeing the phone -- that's because of the confidence I have of Steve to deliver on his vision...

10:50am - "It's a real honor for Cingular to be partnering with Apple -- it's AT&T. Days ago Cingular became a part of the new AT&T..." AT&T logo up on screen.

10:51am - "We're announcing a partnership that takes the mobile phone experience to a new level by bringing together the best network with the best device. Networks are the foundation of what Cingular and AT&T do."

"When it comes to networks AT&T wrote the book -- their quality is legendary. Put this with Apple products together and what do you get? You get the best voice and data experience..." Man this guy is a total snoozer.

10:52am - We've immediately dropped back into cuecard keynote mode, stats on Cingular, stores, distribution, yadda. "We're pleased to partner with Apple to deliver one of the most eagerly anticipated products ever -- the iPhone."

10:53am - "We are changing the way companies work together. Apple and Cingular have a multi-year exclusive partnership. This is not an MVNO -- ours is a unique relationship that lets Apple be Apple, and let's Cingular be Cingular."

10:54am - "iPhone owners will be Cingular and AT&T customers -- they'll get the best network and service in the business. Apple... Cingular... and AT&T have come a long ways."

"I hope you're as excited as we are... this is going to be a terrific ride." Huzzah, he's off stage!

10:56am - And Steve's back... "As Stan's said, we started working together about two years ago, and we come from two different worlds. We love these guys, we're going to bring some great stuff to market over the years together. Let's take a look at this market and how big it is. So how big is this market..." Clickers are dead, even his replacement. "They're scrambling back stage right now." Laughter.

10:56am - "You know, when I was in high school, Steve Woz and I made this little device called the TV jammer -- this little oscillator that put out frequencies that would screw up the TV... We'd go into a dorm at Berkeley we'd screw up the TV while people are watching Star Trek." Ok, we're back...

10:57am -

26m game consoles sold, 94m digital cameras, 135m MP3 players, 209m PCs, 957m phones... 1% market share is 10 million phones. "Exactly what we're trying to do, 1% market share in 2008, 10 million units and we'll go from there."

10:58am - "So, today we've added to the Mac and the iPod, we've added Apple TV, and now iPhone. And you know, the Mac is the only one you really think of as a computer, and we've thought about this and we thought, you know, maybe our name should reflect this better than it does."

"From this day forward we're going to be known as Apple, Inc. We've dropped the computer from our name."

10:59am - "You know, I didn't sleep a wink last night, I was so excited about today. We've been so lucky at Apple, we've had some real revolutionary products. The Mac in 84, the iPod in 2001, and we're gonna do it again with the iPhone in 2007 -- we're VERY excited about this."

"There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love -- 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been.' That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much." Huge, huge applause, standing ovation.

11:00am - "Thank you, thank you. I'd like to highlight the folks that worked on this product... can all the folks here who worked on this product please stand up? Let's give them a round of Applause."

11:01am - "I also can't leave without thanking our families -- they haven't seen a lot of us in the last 6 months. Without their support we couldn't do what we do. You don't know how much we need you and appreciate you, so thank you."

"We've got a really special treat today, we don't have a lot of traditions at Apple besides making great products. One of them is that John Mayer has helped us at every Macworld over the years."

11:02am - "It's our pleasure to welcome John Mayer," who will now play the keynote off. Anyone else remember that Chappelle show sketch?

That's it!