APPLE GOOSED
Apple yesterday unveiled its eagerly anticipated iPhone- a sleek portable gadget that lets users download music, watch TV, talk on the phone, take digital pictures, surf the Web and get e-mail – and sent a chill down its competitors’ spines.
Apple’s stock price surged 8.3 percent to $92.57, while investors hammered shares of Palm and Research in Motion at they imagined those companies Treo and Blackberry units being dumped for the Apple’s iPod-phone combo.
Just as Apple currently has a near monopoly on the market for portable music players after introducing the best-selling iPod five years ago, investors and industry observers expect the company to gain significant heft in the market for handheld digital devices.
“It could be a device that people start using . . . instead of carrying around a separate phone, music player and camera,” said Allan Keiter, founder of MyRatePlan.com, which tracks and compares cellphone plans.
With many of Apple’s products nearing their peak, investors were ready for a big announcement from the company’s chief Steve Jobs at this week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg, who called the iPhone the most highly anticipated phone since Alexander Graham Bell got into the business, said Apple delivered.
“It’s a very different experience than anyone else is offering,” Gartenberg said. “That’s what people were counting on.”
The iPhone, priced at $499 and $599, is set to debut in June. Similar to the iPod, the price is likely to fall with later generations, helping the gadget to catch on with a wider array of consumers, tech experts said.
The launch is a boon for AT&T’s Cingular, which got exclusive rights to operate the iPhone, shutting out other wireless companies.
The new device is a blow to Research in Motion and Palm, which have both been looking to expand from their focus on business customers into the consumer market.
Shares of RIM fell 7.8 percent to $131, while Palm dropped 5.6 percent to $13.92.
Apple boss Jobs said the iPhone is “literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” including smart phones.
“When you get a chance to get your hands on it, I think you’ll agree, we’ve reinvented the phone,” Jobs added.
Apple – which said yesterday it was dropping “computer” from its name as it continues to branch out into new terrain – also said it would start selling Apple TV, a set-top box that allows users to wirelessly beam downloaded movies and other content from their computers to their TV sets.
The hype surrounding the announcements helped shift investor glare from a probe into shady stock-option grants by Apple, one of dozens of companies ensnared in a scandal over backdated options.
Apple discovered that Jobs recommended favorable grant dates for some option awards, but the company cleared him of any wrongdoing.
