“Apple and Cingular have signed an agreement that will make the US’ largest cell phone provider the exclusive carrier of Apple’s forthcoming phone, sources report. Apple’s iPhone remains on track for an early 2007 release,” Ryan Katz reports for Think Secret.
“As previously reported, Apple’s phone will feature a candy-bar design with a 2.2-inch display and 3 megapixel camera. Robust iTunes and iSync support will also be delivered with the phone,” Katz reports. “Apple’s exclusive contract with Cingular is said to be good for the first six months, sources report, meaning other providers will be able to sell the phone in the second-half of 2007.”
“O2 had the exclusive on the ROKR in Europe, however, suggesting that provider may again be tapped to launch Apple’s phone,” Katz reports. “Meanwhile, insiders say Apple is internally estimating that shipments of the iPhone will top a staggering 25 million in 2007 alone.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “raddoc” and “Tom M.” for the heads up.]
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the Apple phone will be available in white, black, and brown (to capture the zunists) and will be called the
“iphune”.
“It can’t be that much of a flop. I see those RAZRs everywhere.”
You see them everywhere because they are cheap phones! That does not mean they are all iTunes enabled or that they are great phones at all. How many people own a Motorola phone with iTunes on it? There you go. The Moto phones have one major drawback. The GUI is terrible! Like running Windows 3.1 on on a PDA. Sony has a much better GUI on the Walkman phones but we all know those ain’t workin with iTunes anytime soon. Still need to do drag and drop there and they do not play protected AAC.
For the iPhone to really take off it needs to come without the BS that wireless providers make customers go through. Present a cool phone and then ream you up the kazoo with a service contract.
For instance a link to buy an iPhone on Apple’s site that takes you to a Cingular sign up plan is not going to sell millions of these things. Maybe sell about 100.
It had better do more than just iTunes and iSync. Such as a good .mac integration, something that’s severely lacking on cell phones these days, decent web integration. It also needs to be fast, a lot of the current phones out there have horrid and slow UIs. And it needs to have decent hardware for text input for messaging.
I was thinking about getting Blackberry 8100 when Cingular finally releases, who knows when, been waiting forever. But maybe I should wait for the iPhone.
Why not make it available to all the major European networks and get more sales?
If not, I hope at least they make it easy to unlock so you can use it on a different network.
Funny thing is…
I’m not going to switch carriers for a new Apple phone. I’d plunk down $300 for an “iPhone” if Verizon carried it.
They must be getting a wad of cash to think people are going to cancel their contracts to move over to Cingular…
I think it’s a bit nuts.