Apple introduces iPhone

Engadget ^ | Jan 9, 2007 | Chris Ziegler

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Capping literally years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple's history -- and that's saying a lot -- the iPhone has been announced today in collaboration with Cingular. Yeah, we said it: "iPhone," the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display with multi-touch support, 2 megapixel cam, 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth with EDR, WiFi, and quadband GSM radio with EDGE -- and amazingly, it somehow runs OS X.

[Spiff]

Nope. They whacked this one out of the park. The technology this thing has on board is incredible.

Full OSX running Safari in a tiny handheld device capable of communicating over cellular broadband, WiFi, or Bluetooth with an EXTREMLY high-resolution screen and gesture/multi-touch interface. Wow! Wow! WOW!

[chilepepper]

there are smaller cell phones, but looks like the size of this thing is "OK", particularly if it can do many things. the googlemaps is the "killer ap" on this thing meethinks, if it plays mp3 as well, thats gravy.

[UlmoLordOfWaters]

Hysterical!

Thanks for that wonderful bit of info.

Of course, the first thing I did was view source and this just made me laugh: <p class="sosumi">Copyright © 2007 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.</p>

Brilliant!

[Terpfen]

It's a phone that doubles as an iPod... or an iPod that doubles as a phone. Either way, you're getting full functionality of both.

A convergence device that's actually useful. Imagine that.

[Spiff]

It's a phone that doubles as an iPod... or an iPod that doubles as a phone. Either way, you're getting full functionality of both.

It's far more than that. Wait and see what they'll be making it do a year from now. Yes, it comes bundled with the cell phone/iPod/web browser (including Google) capabilities. But it is using a real OS (not just a crippled cell phone firmware "OS") that already has thousands and thousands of real apps written for it. Minor UI tweaks and you have those apps running on your pocket communicator.

[Pukin Dog]

I have a Treo 700 for business and a SLVR for my personal use. Neither can approach what this phone does if only half of that demo was true. I'm looking for where I can place my order now, as I heard Apple was taking orders today.

[irishjuggler]

Yes, it's an amazing device, but not amazing enough to get me back on Cingular. This longtime Mac user (18+ years) will pass unless there's a Verizon version.

[Pukin Dog]

I run two 7900GS's in SLI. Great cards, eh? How do you keep yours cool? I used to have 7800GTS' and one of them burned up. I use the VIVO port to capture HD to my computer with WinDVR. I remember you used to have an ATI ALL in Wonder, right?

[Spiff]

Yes, it's an amazing device, but not amazing enough to get me back on Cingular. This longtime Mac user (18+ years) will pass unless there's a Verizon version.

That's the real showstopper here. Cingular service in my area is AWFUL. It was hoped that the iPhone would accept SIMS from any carrier and allow users to use the iPhone with anyone. That is where the industry NEEDS to go if the users have anything to say about it. But right now the major carriers are insistant upon squeezing every nickel and dime from the users for every little piece of data/app/tune/ringtone/wallpaper/etc that they want to put on their phone or through the network.

[Pukin Dog]

There is no way that Cingular will be the ONLY provider. They may get a 3-6 month head start, but Apple would be more than foolish to make the phone Cingular-only. Nobody does that. Verizon will have this phone soon enough.

[SengirV]

I'll be waiting for the iPod, OS X, NO phone version myself.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Nope. They whacked this one out of the park.

The technology this thing has on board is incredible.

Yeah, this thing looks like a very elegant, very capable hand-held computer and portable display device with a lot of features. But as a phone? Too big, and I think that will limit sales - most buyers will buy it as a true video iPod or portable web browser. Wider penetration into the cell phone market will require something smaller.

[AZLiberty]

It's not basically an iPod. It's basically a Mac mini-tablet computer with cell phone capabilities.

[Spiff]

Yeah, this thing looks like a very elegant, very capable hand-held computer and portable display device with a lot of features. But as a phone? Too big, and I think that will limit sales -

Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm

That is nowhere near "big". Definitely not "too big".

Actual size on my monitor.

[Terpfen]

Yes, I know that. But it's easiest to get the point across by saying "phone that doubles as an iPod."

[Spiff]

Yes, I know that. But it's easiest to get the point across by saying "phone that doubles as an iPod."

How about pocket-sized Macintosh computer that doubles as a cell phone?

[ReignOfError]

Yeah, but still easily cleaning Apple's clock.

At a glance, RIMM's market cap is about 24 billion. AAPL's is about 78 billion. AAPL books about 4-5 billion in quarterly revenue, RIMM 600-800 million.

Comparing on share price alone is like describing a football game based on rushing yards rather and ignoring points scored (not that even that will help Ohio State fans feel better).

[AnotherUnixGeek]

That's the real showstopper here. Cingular service in my area is AWFUL.

Well, this device does have WiFi capability, so a lot of VoIP possibilities open up and never mind the overpriced cellular services - if I use this as a phone, it'll be after a Skype client is ported to it.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Bye, bye blackberry.

Many people think the popularity of the Blackberry is the device itself. For individual users, that's true.

But in the business world, the benefits of the Blackberry are not necessarily the devices - it's the RIM network in conjunction with the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).

I can use the Blackberry to securely access data inside the corporate network (behind the firewall) from a Blackberry device that is set up on our BES. It's like the device has an always-connected VPN connection.

That feature is lacking in the other competing devices like the Treo, Motorola, etc. and is one of the reasons why the Blackberry is so popular in the business world.

[Terpfen]

Still not quite as direct as "phone that doubles as an iPod."