The launch of the new phone and service is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday, these people say.The new product could give Apple access to the huge wireless business, in which nearly a billion handsets are shipped every year, dwarfing the nearly 70 million iPods Apple has sold over the past five years.
Several recent analyst reports forecast that Apple would sell millions of phones within a few years, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue. Some analysts go even further, predicting the impact of an Apple cellphone on wireless carriers, chip makers and other parts suppliers.
In the past six months, talks about an Apple device that combines the entertainment functions of iPod with a cellphone has caused a lot of buzz. Apple has provided some tantalizing clues about its plans. An Apple patent application related to a wireless iPod-like device was recently made public on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site. Analysts and bloggers have widely speculated that the Apple cellphone could be called the iPhone, but the prospects of that look more doubtful now: Cisco Systems Inc. released a family of Internet phones under the name iPhone last month.
Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said in July that the company was preparing a competitive response to the increasing array of cellphones with music-playing capabilities.
Cingular Wireless launched the first Apple phone, called ROKR, in September 2005. Designed and produced by Motorola Inc., the phone was not very popular because it could store a mere 100 songs and lacked the smooth design and ease of use that many iPod users have come to expect.
For its part, Cingular is betting that music phones will help it attract new subscribers. In November, Cingular Wireless launched a music service on its cellphone network with some of the biggest online music services, including Napster Inc., Yahoo Inc.’s Yahoo Music and eMusic. Phone users can transfer music acquired from “all you can eat” subscription services from personal computers to music phones.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment on “rumor and speculation” when asked about the Cingular-Apple phone deal. A Cingular spokesman also declined to comment.
