IPhone : Another masterpiece from Apple??

Phone. What is it? Is it for real? Is a new masterpiece really on the way to the market from the Apple assembly line of masterpieces?

Well nobody really has any answers. Apple as usual is tight-lipped about the whole affair. Its share is touching new highs and the market is ripe with rumors that indeed Apple's iPhone is about the hit the markets.

According to Digitimes.com "With reports circulating that an iPhone from Apple Computer is likely to debut in the first half of 2007, the introduction of an iPhone could have an adverse impact on sales of music handsets by other vendors should Apple's first order for an iPhone total 12 million units as reported earlier."

Digitimes.com Research also estimated that global shipments of music handsets expected to top 134 million units in 2007, shipments of an iPhone handset could take up a 5-10% share of the global music handset market next year.

The Apple Masterpieces

Why does any product debut from the house of Apple make so much news? Why is each product from the house of Apple a masterpiece?

I guess the best answer is an article I wrote two years about the Cult of Mac.

"No other computer inspires devotion like a Mac. The largest and most fervent subculture in computing, Mac fans come in all shapes and sizes, but never waver in their dedication. Like fans of a football team or rock band, Macintosh fans have their own subculture, with clearly defined obsessions and rites of passage."

Leander Kahney author of The Cult of Mac

Like, Leander Kahney, journalist and author of the book "The Cult of Mac", I too have been an Apple fan for years. My enthusiasm compares nothing to Kahney who wrote this beautiful book "The Cult of Mac". Kahney's career speaks volumes about him. Wired News, senior writer at the legendary Mac magazine Mac week, Scientific American, Business 2.0, and the Guardian. Kahney owns six computers, all of them Macs. From what I can make out he seems to a 'Mac Addict'.

Addiction, understandable. Devotion, perceivable. Veneration, perhaps apprehensible. But all the THREE put together for a machine called the Mac is perhaps isn't graspable by a non-Mac being.

From Mac to IPod the same cult following. Infact IPod perhaps has a bigger following than even the Mac. Will IPhone meet the expectations the "cult" is anticipating?

The Other Force

There is also a school of thought that believes that the launch of IPhone will not be as simple as Apple thinks it to be. It is noteworthy that the mobile phone market has some of the biggest giants in the corporate world. The market has immensely matured feature wise over the last few years. According to Digitimes.com "as a newcomer to the handset market, Apple would face many challenges, including integration of its platform, issues with patented technologies, verification from service providers and production cost issues."

The Last Word

I believe the IPhone is for real. It's been on the blogs and the web for long enough and I guess we will soon see it in the stores. Will iPhone have a cult following?

Well let me answer it this way. Apple and Steve Jobs I trust. When it's a Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni painting you very well know it's a masterpiece. After Mac and IPod, anything that Apple makes I know for sure will be a masterpiece. Looking forward to seeing the iPhone. All the best Apple? Or did I make a mistake there? Should it be all the best the Nokias, the Sony Ericissons and the Motorola's of the world? iPhone is coming!