International
Apple launches the iPhone - Report and Video
By Finfacts Team
Jun 29, 2007, 16:02

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Apple announced today that its "revolutionary" iPhone will go on sale today across the US at 6:00 p.m. local time at Apple retail stores nationwide. All 164 Apple retail stores in the US will stay open until midnight, and customers can purchase up to two iPhones on a first come, first served basis.

“Apple retail stores were created for this moment—to let customers touch and experience a revolutionary new product,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “With our legendary Genius Bar support, free workshops and our One to One personal training, we’re here to help customers get the most from their new iPhone.”

iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. iPhone combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device—a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod®, and the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps.

Apple says that  iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones.

iPhone will be available in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac.

The Wall Street Journal says that according to one study, 58% of British and 64% of U.S. mobile phone users are aware of the iPhone, and 19 million Americans have expressed interest in buying one. That is remarkable stuff when you consider the iPhone's $499 price, not to mention that even the most successful so-called smartphones are lucky to sell a million units.

At $120.56, Apple's shares are up almost 45% in 2007.

Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal spent 2 weeks testing the iPhone:

We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

The Apple phone combines intelligent voice calling, and a full-blown iPod, with a beautiful new interface for music and video playback. It offers the best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone, and robust email software. And it synchronizes easily and well with both Windows and Macintosh computers using Apple's iTunes software.

It has the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we've seen, and the most internal memory by far. Yet it is one of the thinnest smart phones available and offers impressive battery life, better than its key competitors claim.

At the end of May, the two co-founders of the of the PC industry, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple, who have been fierce rivals for thirty years, appeared jointly at in a public forum for the first time in twenty years. 

The forum was organised by Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret.

"Bill built the first software company in the industry," Apple co-founder Jobs said. "Bill focused on software before anyone."

Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, hailed Jobs for taking big risks and developing products with "incredible taste and elegance".

"What Steve has done is quite phenomenal," Gates said in reference to Jobs' eye for design that resonates with the public . "The way he does things is just different. It's magical."

Steve Jobs said he admired Microsoft's ability to collaborate with other technology companies.

"They learned how to partner with people really well, and I think if Apple could have had a little more of that in its DNA, it would have served it extremely well," he said.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California in May 2007.

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