Apple launched a smartphone it called the iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco on January 9. The iPhone combines three products: a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch screen controls and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class e-mail, Web browsing and maps, into a small, lightweight hand-held device.
"iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large, multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting users control iPhone using just their fingers," Apple said in a statement. "iPhone completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones."
Introducing the new device, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: "iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone.
"We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse."
iPhone allows users to make calls by simply pointing at a name or number. It syncs all contacts from your PC, Mac or Internet service such as Yahoo! so that users always have the full list of up-to-date contacts.
In addition, you can easily construct a favourites list for your most frequently made calls, and merge calls to create conference calls.
iPhone's pioneering Visual Voicemail, an industry first, lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to earlier messages.
Just like e-mail, iPhone's Visual Voicemail enables users to randomly access immediately those messages that interest them most and also features a rich HTML e-mail client that fetches their email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services, displaying photos and graphics right along with the text.
iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so users can read a Web page while downloading their e-mail in the background. Yahoo! Mail, the world's largest e-mail service with over 250 million users, is offering a new free 'push' IMAP e-mail service to all iPhone users who automatically push new e-mail to a user's iPhone, and can be set up by simply entering their Yahoo! name and password.
iPhone will also work with most industry standard IMAP and POP based e-mail services, such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple, Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail and most ISP mail services.
The product includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to send and receive SMS messages easily in multiple sessions.
When users need to type, iPhone presents them with an elegant touch keyboard that is predictive to prevent and correct mistakes, making it much easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones.
Other features are a calendar application that allows calendars to be automatically synced with a PC or Mac, and a 2 megapixel camera with a photo management application that is far beyond anything on a phone today.
Users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac, at the flick of a finger and easily choose a photo to include in an e-mail.
iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone that also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. Apple has chosen Cingular, in the US with over 58 million subscribers, to be its exclusive carrier partner.
iPhone also features the most advanced, fun-to-use Web browser on a portable device with a version of its award-winning Safari Web browser for iPhone. Users can see any Web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone's multi-touch display with their finger.
They can surf the Web from just about anywhere over Wi-Fi or EDGE, and can automatically sync their bookmarks from their PC or Mac. iPhone's Safari Web browser includes built-in Google Search and Yahoo! Search, so users can instantly search for information on their iPhone just like they do on their computer.
iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets music lovers 'touch' their music by easily scrolling through entire lists of songs, artists, albums and playlists. Album artwork is stunningly presented on iPhone's large and vibrant display.
It also features Cover Flow, Apple's amazing way to browse a music library by album cover artwork, for the first time on an iPod. When navigating a music library on iPhone, you are automatically switched into Cover Flow by simply rotating iPhone into its landscape position.
iPhone's stunning 3.5-inch widescreen display offers the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies on a pocket-sized device, with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forward-backward and volume. It plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods, and will soon enjoy watching on their widescreen televisions using the new Apple TV.
The iTunes Store now offers over 350 television shows, over 250 feature films and over 5,000 music videos. It syncs content from a user's iTunes library on their PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.
iPhone also includes Google Maps, featuring Google's groundbreaking maps service and iPhone's amazing maps application, offering the best maps experience by far on any pocket device. Users can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone's remarkable and easy-to-use touch interface.
iPhone employs advanced built-in sensors: an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the display's brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light that automatically enhance the user experience and extend battery life.
iPhone's built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a Web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.
In addition to this, its built-in proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away.
iPhone will be available in the US in June, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4 GB model for $499 (US) and an 8 GB model for $599, and will work with either a PC or Mac.
The iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple's retail and online stores, and through Cingular's retail and online stores. Several iPhone accessories will also be available in June, including Apple's new compact Bluetooth headset.
iPhone requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2).
Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended. To learn more about iPhone, visit Apple.com or watch the video of the iPhone introduction at www.apple.com/iphone/keynote.