Apple launches iPhone

Apple Inc., the household communication company that has dropped the Computer from its name, announced at the San Francisco MacWorld Expo that it will introduce the much-awaited iPhone later this year.

Steve Jobs, the company’s guru CEO, who revived Apple with the new range of iMacs and the market-stopper iPod MP3 and video player, told the 4,000 loyal delegates that the iPhone was an iPod, a phone and Internet communicator all in one.

“We have reinvented the phone,” he said, with the announcement propelling the shares further higher.

However, Jobs said he would be very happy if the iPhone reached a 1% global market share by 2008.

The new iPhone will use Apple’s touch-screen technology called ”multitouch” and will synchronise all your media — movies, music, photos — through Apple’s iTunes digital content store. 
It supports e-mail and web browsing, comes with a 2-megapixel digital camera and has a slot for headphones and a SIM card.

Jobs played a voice mail from former Vice President Al Gore, who is an Apple director, and some Beatles songs on the phone, which is slightly larger than an iPod nano.

The iPhone will be available in the U.S. in June and will cost $499 (EUR 384) for a 4GB version and $599 (EUR 461) for 8GB. Cingular Wireless, the largest mobile-phone operator in the U.S., will be an exclusive partner.

iPhone will go on sale in Europe in the fourth quarter and Asia next year.

Apple is expected to give Nokia and Motorola, which on Monday emphasized its music offerings at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a run for the music phone market.

News reports said that Apple also introduced Apple TV, a set-top box enabling users to send files from their computers to their televisions. The device has an internal hard drive with 40GB of storage as well as a wireless connection and remote control. Consumers will be able to use the box to buy music, movies and TV shows from iTunes and transfer digital video files, photos and music to their televisions.