You Know You Want It

So, he finally did it. At Macworld last night, Steve Jobs announced Apple's next "insanely great thing": the droolworthy little gadget you see above, a.k.a. the iPhone. Jobs & Co. have combined the iPod with a phone and a slightly scaled back wireless connected computer running Mac OSX (perfect for email and light Web surfing). Oh, and the thing comes with a 2MPP camera. All in a slim, attractively designed little package.

(If you want to get an idea of the size  of the iPhone compared to other devices, Jason Kottke put together a cardboard mockup which can be seen here. If you want to see how the iPod stacks up against other popular handheld devices, go here.)

A couple of caveats:

• The device won't be available until June
• It will only be available through Cingular in the US
• The damn thing's expensive - $499 for the 4GB model, $599 for the 8GB model (although this is still less than the price of buying an iPod and handheld device separately)

Will this be a category killer? Still too early to tell, but based on past experience it looks like the iPhone will soon become this year's "must have" device.

Jobs had some other interesting news during his keynote speech. (Speech can be seen here and is actually worth sitting through). He also announced the launch of the Apple TV, a standalone media device that connects to your TV and allows you to store, stream, and view digital media.

And also, the company is changing it's name. From this day forward it will be known as "Apple, inc." rather than Apple Computer. This last point is significant, since it illuminates Jobs's long-term vision. Ever since Apple re-invented itself earlier this decade it has become increasingly clear that the company has moved beyond computers. First it was music players, now cellphones and TV streamers.

In short, it seems that Jobs wants to conquer the world of consumer electronics as a whole with upscale, nicely designed, very chic products. Will it work?

Well, on the cellphone and TV front he will face strong competition both from the phone manufacturers on the one front and from Microsoft (who have a lead of sorts with Windows Media Center) on the other. iTunes's current position as the unchallenged leader in download music sales will probably also be challenged by other competitors as the record labels look to other sellers (with other DRM schemes) who will offer variable pricing.

Still, there's no doubt that Jobs has a sack full of magical pixie dust that he sprinkles over everything Apple releases, so I would never count him out as a serious contender.