About iPHONE - Pricing & availability

In a deal concluded through secretive discussions which began in February 2005, Cingular Wireless will be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States and will remain so until 2009. The iPhone may be purchased only with a two-year service plan with Cingular. Jobs announced that the iPhone will first be available on June 11, 2007 in the U.S., during the fourth quarter 2007 in Europe, and in 2008 for Asia. However, in a press relase April 12, Apple stated that the iPhone will be available at the end of June in the U.S. Also, the Mac OS X v10.5, which was originally planned to be released June 11 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, is now delayed until October 2007, as part of the Mac OS X team was diverted to work on the iPhone.

The initial U.S. release will be offered in two configurations with two different prices, based on a 2-year phone service contract with Cingular Wireless: a 4 GB model for US$499 and an 8 GB model for US$599.

Apple also announced that its goal is to capture 1% of the global mobile phone market, which would be approximately 10 million units being sold in the first full calendar year of iPhone availability. For comparison, Jobs announced that the Apple iPod commands 62% of the U.S. market share for MP3 players