At long last, Jobs unveils the Apple iPhone
SAN FRANCISCO--Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs is expected to announce a set of new products at his speech at Macworld Tuesday. We're covering his keynote from the floor, so so read our play-by-play here. Click here for a large image of the Apple iPhone.
11:10--"We've got a really special treat today. We don't have many traditions at Apple, but John Mayer has helped us with many products," Jobs says.
John Mayer plays a song. All the 12-year-old girls in the audience are screaming. Oh, wait, that's right, there aren't any, this is a technology trade show.
Mayer praises Steve for making products that make people happy. An actual quote, "It's like the opposite of terrorism." Yes, John, you're totally right.
He's playing again. Waiting on the world to change? Dylan, he aint. I'm waiting on the song to change.
11:02--"I couldn't sleep last night, I was so excited about today," Jobs says.
We've had some revolutionary products. And we're going to do it again with the iPhone in 2007. There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote, 'I skate to where the pick is going to be.'"
"We've always tried to do that at Apple, and we always will," Jobs says.
"I want to highlight the folks who worked on these products." Workers stand up to applause. "We also can't leave without thanking the families, all of our families," he says. "Without the support of our families, we couldn't do what we do."
10:59--"Today, we've added to the Mac and the iPod; we've added to Apple TV, and now iPhone. And the Mac is the only one you think of as a computer."
"So, we've thought about this. We are announcing today that we are dropping the "computer" from our name, and we will be known as Apple Inc.
10:58--Steve Jobs is back on. "As Stan said, we started work together about two years ago, and we come from two pretty different worlds. We're going to bring some great stuff to market together over the years. Let's take a look at this market, how big is this market?"
Steve's clicker isn't working. "The clicker is not working. They're scrambling back stage right now."
Steve ad-libs a story about Woz.
"You know, when I was in high school, Steve Woz and I made this little device called the TV jammer, a little device that would screw up a TV. And Woz would screw up the TV, and just as somebody was about to fix it.
Just about a billion phones sold last year worldwide.
1 percent market share equals 10M units. This is exactly what we're going to try to do in 2008, is grab 1 percent market share."
10:55--You know Steve and I, we entered into a contractual agreement without ever seeing the design of the phone, Sigman says. And every time I see this, it's just wow. It's really, really cool, Sigman says.
I brought with me another company to celebrate, it's the new AT&T.
Cingular became a full part of the new AT&T family. This family will help fulfill the vision of wireline, wireless and video in the ways customers haven't imagined, Sigman says.
Sigman says the partnership takes the mobile phone experience to a whole new level.
He says it's a multiyear exclusive partnership, only available with Cingular wireless services. This is not an MVNO, whatever that is, Sigman says. Someone shout from the audience: "Is it locked?" Sigman doesn't respond.
10:49--The iPhone will ship in US in June, in Europe in the fourth quarter and in Asia in 2008, he says.
Our partner is going to be Cingular, Jobs says, adding that it's the best and most popular network in the country with 58 million subscribers. Cingular is going to be Apple's exclusive partner in the U.S.
It's a unique partnership. We're not just going to be selling phones, we're going to be doing innovation together, he says.
Apple worked with Cingular on the visual voicemail. That's the first fruit of this collaboration, he says.
The iPhone will be sold in Apple and Cingular stores.
Cingular CEO Stan Sigman joins Jobs on stage.
10:48--Speaking about the phone's design, Jobs says "multitouch, OS X, more miniaturization than we've ever done."
Jobs says Apple filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone, and we intend to protect them.
"iPhone is like having your life in your pocket," he says.
Price: "People spend $499 for an iPod and smart phone. So what should we charge for iPhone? It's got a lot more than just that. We thought long and hard about it. For 4GB model, price at the same $499, with a two-year contract, 8GB model for $599."
Avilability: shipping these in June. "Apple is announcing it today, shipping in June, we have to go get FCC approval," he says.
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