Apple Confirms Mobile Phone Launch

Apple Computer has confirmed the long rumoured Apple mobile phone device will be launched. The iPhone will be a widescreen version of the company's video iPod, with a touch screen and Internet connection, said Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld Expo.

The phone comes with a black face and silver back, and is slightly larger than the iPod Nano, although it is just 11.6mm thin. The 3.5 inch screen takes up most of the face of the handset, and the display works horizontally and vertically. It also comes with a 2 megapixel camera and 8GB of memory. The touch screen display will be controlled by touching it with the finger, no need for a separate stylus.

The handset will operate on all four GSM bands, EDGE and WiFi.

UBS's Benjamin Reitzes sold Bloomberg News that he estimates Apple may sell 5 million units, at US$300 each, adding US$1.5 billion in annual sales.

Jobs said Apple's iPhone would "reinvent" the telecommunications sector and "leapfrog" past the current generation of hard-to-use smart phones. "Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

The device will automatically sync your media movies, movies, photos through Apple's iTunes digital content store."

Posted to the site on 9th January 2007