You cannot go anywhere these days without running into people talking on their cell phones. People are talking on their cell phones at the office, in restaurants, and at the mall. With the ever-growing popularity of cellular devices, corporations are pushing to come out with the next great product. Next month and time will tell if the developers at Apple have been able to achieve the goal. During the wait for iPhone there has been speculation, there has been anticipation, but now the iPhone is finally being unleashed on the public. The name iPhone was a long-standing joke, but when Apple finally released information on their next innovation the iPhone was not only a joke, it was a mammoth coming. 

Apple has taken their popular mp3 player the iPod and given it functionality in the form of a phone and Apple’s groundbreaking operating system OS X. The phone uses touch technology on its wide screen display to easily access the many features available. Along with a music player and cell phone, the Cingular exclusive iPhone also has WiFi, Bluetooth, rich HTML email and Safari to keep users wired when they are away from their laptops. With OS X, the smart phone also comes packed with various other programs to keep consumers organized and productive, such as calendars and notes.

The other cell phone corporations are not just going to sit around and let the iPhone take over. Since the announcement of Apple’s new product, the leading cellular companies have been releasing their own mp3 players with the hopes of competing with Apple. Three such products are: the Samsung UpStage, the Nokia 5400 XpressMusic, and the Sony Walkman. UpStage by Samsung has a cell phone on one side of its small device and a music player on the other. The battery power of the UpStage leaves something to be desired, but Samsung has addressed this issue by including a second battery in the carrying case. Nokia has entered the Nokia 5400 XpressMusic into the running. XpressMusic is an exclusive at T-Mobile, comes in black or purple, has one gigabyte of memory - which can be expanded to two gigabytes of memory and a stylish slide out keypad. The UpStage and XpressMusic both utilize microSD technology so as high capacity cards become available the phones can be upgraded with more memory capacity. The Sony Ericsson Walkman phone comes with 512mb of memory but can be expanded to one gigabyte of memory and has up to 25 hours of battery power. But, the most interesting aspect of Sony’s mp3 phone is that they made multiple models, something that fits any style. It does not hurt that they are free with a contract.

Has Apple priced itself out of its target audience? The iPhone is targeted towards a younger crowd, most of whom already own an iPod. While the iPhone brings more functionality to mp3 players, at $499 – with a two-year contract – for 4 gigabytes of memory, it might not be a practical solution for someone without unlimited funds looking for a new cell phone. The competition has less available in memory capacity – most can be equipped with 2 gigabytes of memory – but they have a more attractive price tag. A prospective buyer could purchase an iPod with 80 gigabytes of memory for $349 and a higher end cell phone and still not reach the iPhone’s expensive price. Apple carries some weight in the name and its implications, and past performance of the iPod has been astonishing but is it enough to entice the consumer?

¹ http://www.apple.com/iphone/

² http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/