Phone model updates

Here at gsmExchange we have been talking about the eagerly anticipated iPhone from Apple for a while now and finally the company has ended speculation with the announcement by Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco yesterday of Apple's formal entry into the telecommunications industry with the introduction of its now infamous iPhone.

While not all details have been confirmed, it is believed that the handset is set for market entry in the US in June, while Europe will have to wait until later in the year and Asia until possibly 2008, when Job claimed that Apple could potentially be selling up to 10 million phones or 1% of the handset market annually.

In terms of the cost to consumers, Apple has estimated that the iPhone will cost from $499 to $599 (€ 384 - € 460), though this may fluctuate according to the individual market. At the Expo, Jobs demonstrated the new phone, which uses so-called 'multi-touch' technology, using a large touch screen as a control base, which will, as Job pointed out, ignore unintended touches, making it a "super smart" phone, "five years ahead of current smart phone standards." The slim-line iPhone will also have a standard built-in two mega-pixel camera and full touch keyboard with a 4 gigabyte (GB) memory. The handset itself will use the network of AT&T's mobile unit, Cingular and will run Apple's OS X operating system.

While it will not be until the market launch of the iPhone later in the year that the true potential of the handset is realized, in the meantime, leading manufacturers of high-end smart phones such as Nokia , Motorola and Blackberry will be eager to counter the challenge from Apple for a piece of the lucrative handset market. Watch this space for the interesting times to come.....

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