On Friday, June 29 Apple is scheduled to unleash another must-have digital gizmo on Western Civilization. On that day the greatly antipated , and much ballyhooed, iPhone, a combination mobile phone and iPod music player with serious Internet capabilities, goes on sale to the world. It is expected to be warmly received by the digital public, although that is exactly the same thing that was once said about Apple's Newton, the ill-fated breakthrough PDA whose handwriting recognition algorithm was unacquainted with about half of the English alphabet. Apple reckons that the iPhone will more closely replicate the technical and financial success of its ultra-famous, industry standard iPod music player. Other cell phone and/or music player vendors are expected to bring their own products to market in 2008 and 2009.
The price of Apple Inc.'s iPhone combined with the cost of subscribing to AT&T's wireless service may inhibit demand for the device, a survey by research firm IDC found. Two versions of the device, costing $500 and $600, will be offered exclusively for use on AT&T's network under a two-year contract.
Three-fifths of respondents to IDC's survey of 456 people admitted to being interested in the iPhone, and a tenth said they might buy one at full price when it goes on sale Friday. Apple's stock has shot up roughly fifty percent (i.e., from about 80 to 120) in the past two months on the strength of little but the upcoming iPhone release.
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