Off-topic: MacWorld 2007 - Steve Jobs Announces the Long-Awaited iPhone!

January 9, 2007 · 💬 Join the Discussion

This keynote will go down in history, no question about it!

Since I know every self-respecting Railer loves Apple, I’m sure everyone already knows that Steve Jobs’s keynote in San Francisco at MacWorld 2007 just wrapped up (17:07). The rumors over the past few days were enormous, no keynote was more anticipated, and Steve Jobs did not disappoint. Check out the details, transcript, and photos in the Engadget live blog.

Regardless of Apple TV’s quality (the prototype was unveiled as iTV at WWDC 2006), the star of the show was the iPhone: an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator — as Steve Jobs put it: 3 in 1. The standards for cell phones and smartphones have been obliterated; Apple just raised the bar to stratospheric levels. Here’s the list:

  • 4GB or 8GB of flash memory
  • 3.5" high-resolution screen at 160ppi

  • Just 1 button — everything else is the widescreen display with 3 sensors (proximity, orientation, and acceleration). Want to zoom into a photo? Put two fingers on the screen and spread them apart!

  • Syncs with iTunes (music, videos, photos, contacts, calendars)

  • WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, quad-band GSM+EDGE (in the US, via Cingular/AT&T)
  • 2 Megapixel digital camera

  • Runs OS X (!) — Safari was shown running as the web browser. Integration with Google Maps, Yahoo Mail, POP3, IMAP, etc. Goes well beyond BlackBerry

  • 5 hours of battery life, 16 hours audio-only
  • Various accessories: earphones with an inline control (from what I gathered, you just give the cable a quick tug with both hands to answer a call), and the smallest and most elegant Bluetooth headset

The prices are steep, but that’s the price of an exceptional device: US$400 for the 4GB model and US$599 for the 8GB. And from now on Apple Computer, Inc. becomes Apple, Inc. — which makes complete sense, since Apple products now live in our bedrooms (iMac), our offices (MacBook, Mac Pro), our cars (BMW, Audi, and others), our living rooms (Apple TV), and our pockets (iPod, iPhone). Remarkable, to say the least.

Apple shares were at US$6, climbed more than 5% during the presentation — and that’s with Leopard not even being mentioned! They’re going after at least 1% of a market of nearly 1 billion consumers by 2008. The product launches in the US in June 2007. I hope it gets here soon!

If anyone finds a download link for the keynote video (I’m hoping it’ll hit BitTorrent soon), let me know!