Apple and Cingular announced that Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the US, will be Apple’s exclusive US carrier partner for Apple’s revolutionary iPhone unveiled today. As part of this multi-year partnership, Apple and Cingular are working together to provide innovative new features to mobile phone users, such as iPhone’s pioneering and unique Visual Voicemail, a first on any mobile phone in the world.
“Apple chose Cingular because they are the best and most popular carrier in the US,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We are thrilled to be offering our revolutionary new iPhone exclusively with Cingular, and look forward to working together with them to create some wonderful new features for our customers.”
“By partnering with Apple, we are continuing our commitment to raising the bar for customers,” said Stan Sigman, Cingular’s president and CEO, in the release. “We think the iPhone is one of the most innovative devices ever created, and we look forward to letting our customers be the first in the world to experience the future of mobile phones.”
iPhone’s unique Visual Voicemail was co-developed by Apple and Cingular. Visual Voicemail makes voicemail as fast and convenient as email by allowing users to go directly to any of their voice messages without listening to any of the prior messages.
iPhone will be available in the US beginning in June 2007 in a 4GB model for $499 and an 8GB model for $599, and will work in combination with Apple’s iTunes running on either a PC or Mac.
iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores and through Cingular’s retail and online stores.
See Apple’s new iPhone here.
I don’t care about the cost or Cingular being the only carrier.
But I read somewhere in the specs that it has a “head set jack”.
I do care about no bluetooth!!
” WHY COULDN’T THEY OFFER THIS IN A THICKER 30gb VERSION “
You want this brickphone to be thicker AND heavier?
Big, Thick, heavy, poorly featured for it’s size and weight, no keyboard/keypad, available 6 months from now. It’s unlikely this will turn the cellular world on it’s ear.
But you might have a point, if you’re going to make a bricky non functional phone you might as well at least go all the way and make it a high capacity iPod.
I for one will pay 600 buckaroos for this phone. It’s more than a phone which I need bbbbbaaaaaadddd. I can now throw my palm at the wall. Finally, Finally a device that will do it all! 600 is not that bad for what you get. I will use this more than my laptop.
Can no one read anynore, the iPhone has bluetooth and a headphone jack-the two are not mutually exclusive.
I had Verizon for several years and now Cingular for over a year – both in the D.C. area. I’m much happier with Cingular service. Additionally, zero customer service problems with cingular (much different than my experience with verizon).
I’m not crazy about the 2 year commitment required considering the high price but since cingular will be the only carrier that is really a moot point for now.
Visual voicemail will allow you to send a video for voicemail, I’d assume
“The reason it’s Cingular is because it’s the largest company in the US that uses SIM cards and GSM. This means that the phones, when unlocked, will work in Europe. Why make a separate version just for Verizon?”
And the rest of the world. The US is such a backward cell phone market. In the rest of the world (95% of the market) CDMA (Verizon) is being phased out for 3G, and GSM currently rules. Why would they cripple a device to just a US market and it’s decades old technology?
The delay is not only for certification, but also to find local carriers (Asia, Europe). So i’ll be waiting for 2008, or just until unlocked ones become available. Which will probably be soon after intro.
Bloody amazing phone, or should i say Phod
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> . Looking forward to the next ipod gen with the same features minus the phone.
hopefully cingular realizes how important it is to keep the iphone customers happy and that will temper some of their greed and keep them from overcharging everyone for calls/internet time… i’m sure Apple will do everything possible to iron out a reasonable/dependable network service as they can’t afford to have their HOMERUN ruined by poor support from Cingular…
MW: Greed… only greed can check greed… hopefully Cingular will reason it will be more profitable to provide reasonable service than rip people off in this case…
those of you previously unhappy with Cingular… it was you against the giant company (of course they couldn’t care less about you) because they already had you by the neck (your contract)… hopefully this time apple will make them care about you… and the contract will also work in your favor…
That sucks i guess.
Why r they doing that?????
=-(