The iPod phone which according to Taiwanese manufacturers is now in production is set to be launched at Macworld San Francisco on January 8th 2007.
Several months ago SHN broke the story that Apple was talking to Taiwanese manufacturers about an iPod phone. Among those Companies that Apple spoke to was OEM manufacturer BenQ were have recently been facing their own phone problems in Germany with the failure of the BenQ Siemens business.
A research analyst from Prudential Equity Group, Jesse Tortora, said that his checks indicate that Apple may launch not one, but two cell phones, as soon as January 2007. SHN has also been told that Telstra and Vodaphone have both held discussions with Apple re the sale of the new iPhone acroos their networks. According to Apple Insider, Tortora believes that one model will be a smart phone, including integrated keyboard, video and music capability, while the other model will be a slimmer phone with just music functionality.
“Although these phones represent significant upside earnings potential for the company, there are some concerns regarding market acceptance and battery life, given the number of functions included in the phones,” he wrote.
AppleInsider reports that Apple has filed for a trademark on the term iPhone. ‘The filing, made last month with a Far Eastern trademark office, is the latest in a long list of incontrovertible evidence to suggest Apple is in the final developmental stages of the project, which is expected to merge traditional cellular capabilities with an iPod digital music player.’ wrote AppleInsider.
The first rumors about an iPhone, based on the iPod design and compatible with iTunes, have started at the beginning of this year. On January 5, Apple made a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the phrase “Mobile Me” for use in a wide range of businesses. This move was just the start for speculation that Apple could introduce an iPod phone.
The areas that the trademark covers include computing devices, mobile devices, and mobile services including digital music, video, games, e-mail, and messaging across Internet, intranets, extranets, television, cellular, and satellite networks, the filing shows. In one application, Apple’s “Mobile Me” would apply to “mobile telephone communications services” and “telecommunication services for the dissemination of information by mobile telephone, namely the transmission of data to mobile telephones.”
In September 2005, Apple joined with Motorola and Cingular on the Rokr music phone, which included Apple’s iTunes software. But criticism from analysts about the meager capacity of 100 songs led some to question whether Apple is gearing up to release a true iPod phone or perhaps start its own niche mobile phone carrier.
After the launch of ROKR, Motorola CEO Ed Zander made some statements, saying that he believes that Apple will eventually release its own mobile-phone design.
In May this year, Nikkei reported that Softbank, a Japanese telecom company, and Apple are working to develop an iPod phone which will include the ability to download songs from iTunes Music Store. Nikkei didn’t disclose any details about the source of this information.
