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At least, the Apple iPhone for those who are interested

This from Engadget, who follow CES and Apple developments far more closely than I. I know the iPhone speculation has fueled a lot of discussion. I personally don't think it has any impact on the enterprise, on VoIP, or on unified communications. It's another iDevice that will get consumer popularity. Because it's a "phone" it's worth mention here, but it isn't something I really expect to pay much attention to myself.

The Apple iPhone runs OS X


Capping literally years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple's history -- and that's saying a lot -- the iPhone has been announced today. Yeah, we said it: "iPhone," the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the sensor when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quadband GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate. A partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email. Apple quotes 5 hours of battery life for talk or video, with a full 16 hours in music mode -- no word on standby time yet. In a twisted way, this is one rumor mill we're almost sad to see grind to a halt; after all, when is the next time we're going to have an opportunity to run this picture?
The 4GB iPhone will go out the door in the US as a Cingular exclusive for $499 on a two-year contract, 8GB for $599. Ships Stateside in June, Europe in fourth quarter, Asia in 2008.


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Comments

just wondering -- I assume the phone is locked as are many GSM phones, however as I remember it is not illegal to unlock it....
How long will that take?

I honestly don't know Moshe, but it's a great question. I'll be writing up some thoughts on the iPhone real soon here. In general, I'm not overly impressed myself, but I'm not the target demographic for the thing either.

I think partnering with a carrier was a very bad move. If it isn't unlocked and carrier neutral in some fashion, and if it costs more and is harder to purchase unlocked, the market for the device is significantly eroded right out of the gate.

More thoughts to follow.

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Ken Camp's Bio:

Ken Camp has more than 25 years of experience in information technology. Ken spent 17 years with AT&T and Lucent Technologies successfully designing and implementing voice and data networks. He later worked in the security marketplace and played a key role in early IPSec VPN deployments. As an independent consultant, Ken's primary focal areas include network performance improvement, security practices and the design and deployment of integrated voice and data solutions. He may be contacted at: ken_camp@realtimepublishers.net

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