Posted on 01/09/2007 7:30:11 PM PST by martin_fierro
Apple unveils iPhone
Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:01 AM GMT
By Duncan Martell
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple on Tuesday debuted its much-anticipated take on the smart phone, a sleek device with a large screen that combines a phone, an iPod and instant messaging, sending its shares to a record high.
Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO and chief showman, pulled an iPhone from his jeans pocket at the annual Macworld conference and drew a standing ovation at the end of his speech.
Investors also cheered, pushing Apple shares 8 percent higher, while those of rival high-end phone makers Palm Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. fell.
Lacking the diminutive keypads found on other smart phones, Apple's iPhone has a single button and a 3.5-inch (9-cm) touch screen to navigate between playing songs and videos, displaying pictures, typing instant messages or making phone calls.
In a nod to Apple's widening influence in consumer electronics, Jobs said it would drop "Computer" from its name.
Most of what Apple Inc. sells now is mobile technology, whether it be iPods or notebooks, which now outsell desktop Macs.
The iPhone is thinner than some of the cell phone industry's sleekest devices, such as Motorola Inc.'s RAZR.
It will cost $499(258 pounds) to $599 when it debuts in the United States in June. Sales are expected to start in Europe in the fourth quarter and in Asia in 2008.
Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless network and a unit of AT&T Inc., has a multiyear, exclusive agreement to provide U.S. service for the iPhone.
HUGE MARKET
Jobs said that in 2008 Apple could sell 10 million iPhones, representing roughly 1 percent of the current annual mobile phone market of 1 billion units a year.
Last year, the consumer electronics market globally was worth $145 billion.
"This is a huge market right here," Jobs said in an interview, calling the iPhone "a natural extension of what we've been doing."
Gartner analyst Mike McGuire said Apple seems to have backed up Jobs' claim that the company had "reinvented" the mobile phone.
"It's not just candy. These are entirely useful, new ways to use your phone," McGuire said.
The iPhone could hurt the market for other high-end phones such as the "Q", made by Motorola., models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson and music phones from the same makers, analysts said.
Jobs, speaking at the conference, predicted the iPhone would have a similar impact on Apple's fortunes as two previous blockbusters: the Macintosh and iPod.
"Apple has been very fortunate that it has been able to introduce a few of these" hits, he said, referring to the introduction of the Macintosh computer in 1984 and the iPod in 2001. "We are advancing the state of the art in every aspect."
Apple shares rose $7.10 to close at a record $92.57.
The stock rose 18 percent in 2006, after more than doubling in 2005 and tripling in 2004, making it one of the best-performing technology stocks in recent years.
IPOD GROWTH MODERATING
Analysts said iPhone is a potentially huge source of growth as Apple seeks new revenue streams and ways to build on its 70-percent-plus U.S. market share for digital music players.
"I've already ordered two," said Nick Kaiser, president of Saturna Capital. "I don't know what the cost is and I don't care ... The higher it is the more I like it as a shareholder."
While iPods are still selling well, growth has moderated.
In the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2006, Apple sold 8.73 million iPods, up 35 percent from a year before.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005, Apple sold 6.5 million iPods, more than triple in the year-earlier period.
Analysts cautioned, however, that the comparatively high price would keep the iPhone from becoming a mass market hit soon, though the price would almost certainly drop, as with most consumer electronics devices over time.
"This (iPhone) does have the potential to shake up the competitive landscape even if it's not a device that's targeted to mass consumers," said Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson.
"It's clearly targeted towards the highest-value subscribers and they are the most profitable subscribers."
The iPhone is 11.6-millimeters (0.5-inches) thick, has five hours of continuous talk time and 15 hours for playing music, and includes a camera.
It runs Apple's OS X operating system, has the Safari browser for Web access and e-mail functions that can handle graphics and work with external services.
The iPhone can connect to the Internet wirelessly via Wi-Fi and has Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology that supports wireless headsets or links to devices like printers.
Separately, Jobs said AppleTV, the newly renamed device for streaming movies, music, photos, podcasts and TV shows to home entertainment systems, would ship in February. AppleTV, which comes with a 40-gigabyte internal hard drive, will cost $299.
Apple has now sold 70 million iPods and consumers have bought more than 2 billion songs for about 99 cents each on iTunes. More than 220 TV shows are also available on iTunes.
The beauty of this phone is how upgradable and customizable it will be. No buttons = buttons for every occasion.
For example, you install a software upgrade, pick your brand of family room TV/VCR/etc., and now your iPhone is a remote (commands would have to be sent via Bluetooth rather than IR, of course). Walk into your bedroom, it detects the new TV and becomes a remote for that TV. It can change to suit every appliance control device you own, from baby monitors to garage door openers.
This phone is great for what it can do now -- later come the third party applications, doing stuff we haven't even thought up yet. Ninety percent crap, maybe, but with that, 10 percent genius.
There will not soon be copycats. Apple has a lock on the key patents, and Jobs said in his presentation that Apple will fight to protect them.
You asked -- "... is there some incredible game-changing feature the press release just forgot to mention, or is this one of those things that's just "cool" because it'll have an Apple logo, even though the same thing is already available elsewhere for less money?"
Well, watch the full demo for yourself -- and then make up your mind...
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/
Regards,
Star Traveler
You said -- "To compare the implementation of technology in the iPhone to less expensive existing alternatives is like saying you would rather have a 1975 Ford Mustang than a 2007 Lexus because it still has four wheels and gets from point A to point B. It isn't that some people would buy the Lexus because it IS cooler, it is because it is clearly and without question a better, more capable, easier and elegant solution than an underpowered, plastic interior 1975 Ford Mustang. Sure, they both have heating and four on the floor, but you have to rack your hand trying to move the sometimes inoperable heating levers in the Mustang (after leaning to the other side of the car to do it) and grind the gears. In the 2007 Lexus, you get in, it adjusts the seats to you, you verbally tell it what temperature you want the interior at, and the the four on the floor rests easily under your hand. Grinding of gears is physically impossible the way they designed it. You get the idea. (Although I would be the first to admit-for some people, simply getting from point A to point B is the primary purpose in a car...they simply do not care, are not interested and don't want to spend money on something like a Lexus, or cannot spend it. They see NO problem with ripping up the side of their hand trying to slide frozen temperature control levers, or driving with one shoulder below the other so they can reach the stickshift. Not to mention the injection molded plastic interior!) "
Well, allow me to paraphrase...
There was a time when I drove ratty cars. I got tired of driving ratty cars, even though they did have four wheels and a steering wheel and radio and a heaters, etc., etc.
Then I got better cars. Now, I'm happy driving better cars (and they still get me from point A to point B and have four wheels and a steering wheel and a radio and heaters, etc., etc.). There's just something better about a "better car".
And if you don't know the difference -- there's no use explaining it (keep driving the ratty cars...).
Regards,
Star Traveler
You said -- "I thought Jobs' keynote address to be very impressive."
I was reading the blog notes by those attending the keynote speech -- at the time it was happening. And one blogger said "RDF in full force"
So, what I think you were seeing is what makes Steve Jobs so good -- that his RDF (Reality Distortion Field) works so well and he makes excellent presentations. So, for sure, it was the *highest level* I had ever seen the RDF at.
Regards,
Star Traveler
I can't fault Apple for it - they'll sell a billion of 'em at a huge markup, and more power to them. But they didn't "reinvent the phone"; at best they reinvented the marketing of the PDA phone.
I am not saying you are wrong I just think you and I see it differently.
That the iPod has taken over the digital audio market is undeniable, but it isn't because Apple is cool, although it may be just that for a segment of the population.
It took over the market because of its integration and user interface. That is a very, very powerful combination.
The iPod works, because there are a HUGE number of people who didn't want to get into the concept of "how do I get my music onto my PC...how do I store it...where do I store it...how do I get it onto the device...how do I find a song to listen to it...and so on.
There are a lot of people to whom the interface is not as big a deal...a lot of computer people are that way who work in computer stuff for a living. I know, because I am one of them. But I also know, because my work demands it, that I step out of the computer geek shoes and put on the everyday user shoes. I have to do that to serve the people who need me. I have to develop workflows in an extremely hectic environment, determine how to use radiology software in a medical environment. I can tell you, things that are no problem to me, that is I could shrug my shoulders and do it one way or the other with no sweat, are onerous to people who aren't as comfortable and facile with technology.
I continually have to sit back and look at the way things are done and put myself in the shoes of the user who just wants to use the equipment/software to get something done. I find all to often, technology is an unfriendly barrier to many people.
What Apple did with the iPod, and what they will do with the iPhone, is make it an accessible technology that makes run of the mill people who use it feel like technodweebs. And people love it. And it is beautiful, something not to be discounted.
At the price point it is at...it will not slay the competition. But it is NO coincidence that Apple stock shot up while the stock of other cell phone makers dropped. They know the cell phone world has changed, and they also know Apple had tried to do due diligence to safeguard what it has spent the last two years working on.
It IS a revolutionary interface, there is no product out there with what, three buttons on the outside, that does what it does. It will be revolutionary. It isn't just eye candy.
You said -- "Go to apple.com to see a streaming replay of the keynote for yourself."
Saw it last night. I had to try several times, because the server was too busy, but I finally got through. It was absolutely great. It's one thing to read the press releases -- but it's entirely different to see it in action -- with Steve Jobs putting it through all its paces.
Regards,
Star Traveler
We enjoyed it, too. My only wish is that the streaming video of the keynote stayed on Microsoft's Zune logo long enough to see it burst into flames - (something that was reported by the eye witnesses present.)
You said -- "We enjoyed it, too. My only wish is that the streaming video of the keynote stayed on Microsoft's Zune logo long enough to see it burst into flames - (something that was reported by the eye witnesses present.)"
Well, try out this link (Microsoft's answer to Apple's "iPhone") --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRLRjKCGHek&eurl=
Regards,
Star Traveler
Oh..., one more, too --
http://www.registeredmedia.com/gallery/files/4/cellphone_original.jpg
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