Apple Computer Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs unveiled the highly anticipated iPhone during his opening keynote speech at the annual Macworld Conference & Expo Tuesday in San Francisco. (See slideshow of iPhone.)
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COMMENT:

Exciting news, especially for Mac users who have been and are still struggling with synchronizing their smartphones with Mac OSX. This is a big risk for Apple who have not, to date, been involved in the telecom industry but it is an inevitable one. Convergence of all sorts is the trend of the moment and Apple is unlikely to be sitting on the sideline even though it prides itself as a trend setter rather than a follower. The Mac OSX is a robust operating system so its transition onto the iPhone should not have too many hiccups. Security will be an important area for Apple to get right if the iPhone is to succeed in this very competitive arena. It will be interesting to see how Apple markets this phone in the rest of the world since they have taken a very conservative stance in the US, partnering with only one operator (Cingular) and pricing the phone at the high end - $499 for a 4Gbit and $599 for an 8Gbit iPhone.

And incidentally, why call it the iPhone since that name has already been taken by Cisco - unless Jobs had resolved that one with the company who would probably be only too happy to have a cut of the proceeds especially if it turns out to be as popular as the iPod. Well, watch this space .......