Apple iPhone gets official thumbs-up

21/05/2007
Apple’s long-awaited iPhone has been given the go-ahead by the US government in time for its rumored June launch.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given Apple the thumbs-up and the device is now set for launch. While Apple has kept the exact launch date of its first mobile close to its chest, it’s widely believed to be some time in late June.

The FCC typically tests new devices to the market for various factors including SAR (specific absorption rate)–how much radiation is absorbed into the owner’s head–when the device is in use.

The FCC approval documents don’t, however, give away more details of the closely guarded iPhone: Apple has requested that details including pictures of the handheld device and its user guide remain under wraps for 45 days.

When the device does go on sale, it will be licensed exclusively to US operator Cingular at two prices, US$499 for a 4GB device and US$599 for its 8GB equivalent, although it’s not known whether Cingular intends to subsidize the device.

Apple has given the official launch date for the United Kingdom as late 2007 but has yet to reveal which mobile operator will be its partner in this country.

Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.

Entering iPhone Era: Marking Time in Mobile

Ever since my January keynote on handset design at the big annual 3G event in Tokyo I’ve mentioned the iPhone in every public presentation. And almost every time I’ve made the point that June 2007 marks a watershed moment in time. Much like the Western calendar marks time from before and after Jesus Christ, and how the computer world changed totally by the Macintosh – remembering that Windows is Microsoft’s copy of the Mac operating system – I am certain that the mobile telecoms world will count its time in two Eras. The Era BI: time Before the iPhone, and the ERA AI: time After the iPhone.

What will change? Pretty much everything. And funnily enough, most of it is not actually caused by the iPhone, they only happen to occur so closely to the iPhone, that the iPhone will be given much of the credit.

Contrarian iPhone PR Story Package

Working for IMO Independent Mobile reminds as their Director of Marketing reminds me a lot of my role at 48hourprint.com as Director of Marketing. Not a lot of time to spend on blogging!

So that I try and juggle the new job and keep content on this blog that’s valuable. I thought I might start discussing some of the PR ideas I am thinking about for IMO.

The iPhone is due out in early June, and will be initially available only through Apple and Cingular stores. IMO sells Cingular services but Cingular is restricting the sale of the iPhone to their exclusive company stores for the moment, which means there may be a lot of hype about the iPhone but IMO’s two retail stores in Framingham, MA and Columbus, OH cannot sell the product. One idea I am working on is researching which phones the other carriers and manufacturers are coming out with at the same time that compete with the iPhone.

My background is not in the wireless industry, so I have to rely a lot on my colleagues in sales at the stores. Fortunately everyone is really knowledgeable, and they recommended I review.

BlackBerry 8830
HTC S710
T-Mobile SideKick
Sprint UpStage
And the Helio Ocean

My plan was to research each of these phones and write up a piece on each, get some comments from my colleagues, and then find the PR contacts from each of the manufacturers or carriers. Perhaps also get some articles from the large gadget bloggers. Take this story package, and write some emails to some of the local papers in each of the cities where we are located. And see if any of the journalists are interested in using the story about what else is out there besides the iPhone as a way of generating some publicity for IMO. I was also going to use this for the content in our email newsletter. I would have written this for the IMO blog, but we don’t have one yet. Any other ideas would be most welcome.

The iPhone rumor had many red flags

Remember that old chestnut about not believing everything you read in the paper? It’s still true. And even more so in the internet age.

A case in point was yesterday’s false rumor reported by our sister blog Engadget that the much-hyped Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone was going to be delayed. This is one the oddest episodes I’ve seen in my career as a business journalist.

From the start, there were plenty of red flags.

Firstly, why would a company whose obsession with media leaks rival that of the late Richard Nixon distribute an open memo to employees on such a sensitive topic? Apple is being closely followed by a huge and ever-growing number of media outlets. Any memo detailing anything regarding the much-anticipated iPhone would have been leaked within minutes. And let’s credit Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a little more savvy than that. This is a company with a tense relationship with the media already.

Secondly, Apple would have been required to put out a public statement about an iPhone delay. In the eyes of the SEC, this is material information that must be disseminated. If you have any doubts about that, check the chart of the company’s stock yesterday.

Should Engadget have been more careful about how it reported the rumor?

Perhaps. It’s not the first media outlet, online or old-media, to be burned by a false rumor or phony documents. My former employer Bloomberg News got conned a few years ago by a phony press release. CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) relied on suspect documents in a now discredited story on President George Bush.

If Engadget hadn’t reported the rumor, one of its many competitors surely would have. And it’s the nature of new media that hot news — true or otherwise — will spread like a mushroom cloud throughout the blogosphere within minutes.

But the guys at Engadget know their stuff. It would only be a matter of time before the truth was rooted out and thusly reported.

What the Apple rumor highlights is how easy it is to concoct information to drive stock prices up or down. That’s why investors need to skeptical of what they read in the media. Still.

Finally, we need to all calm down. Even if the iPhone were delayed, my BloggingStocks colleague Georges Yared correctly points out that it would haven’t been the end of the world.

Source

FCC Approves iPhone

The Federal Communications Commission approved Apple Inc.’s iPhone, clearing the way for the combined phone and music player to hit the shelves.
Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

The Federal Communications Commission approved Apple’s iPhone, clearing the way for the combined phone and music player to hit the shelves.

Apple expects to begin selling the phones in late June.

Some of the FCC documents confirm a few features of the phone, including it will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and will operate in the 1900MHz and 850MHz frequency bands.

That means that despite the phone’s high price, users won’t be able to roam with it into Europe, where operators use different frequencies. The phone uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) wireless data standard. Apple has said the phone will ship initially only in the U.S. but many GSM phones today, even on the low end, are capable of operating in both Europe and the U.S.

(Read PCW’s blog on the FCC’s action.)

Eager potential users who hoped for a faster data connection will be disappointed that the approval is only for EDGE. Many operators, including Apple partner AT&T, have upgraded their networks to deliver download speeds of about 500K bits per second or more, more than twice as fast as EDGE.

The FCC also released correspondence regarding Apple’s requests that the agency keep some documents private. Apple asked the FCC not to release documents that include photos of the phone or the phone’s user manual for 45 days after certification. Apple asked that other documents such as diagrams, a schematic of the radio, the radio bill of materials and operational descriptions remain private indefinitely. The FCC agreed to the requests.

The long, public FCC certification process may have been the reason Apple decided uncharacteristically to announce the iPhone in January, six months in advance. Rather than let rumors leak out based on FCC filings, Apple may have decided to tell the public about the iPhone itself.

AT&T, which will exclusively sell the phone initially, began last week giving permission to employees who are testing the phones to take the phones outside of their offices for the first time, according to an AT&T employee who asked not to be named. Features on the phones are being activated individually and so far testers can’t play music, watch videos or use the visual voicemail features, the employee said.

Two versions of the iPhone will become available initially. The 4G-byte phone will cost US$499 with a two-year contract with AT&T, and the 8G-byte phone will sell for $599.

The AppleInsider blog reported on the FCC approval and has also posted many of the documents for easy viewing on its site.

Apple requires approval from the FCC to sell devices like the iPhone that operate on the public airwaves.

Source

What’s the start date for ‘iPhone Personal Trainers’?

Apple had an open house yesterday in Elk Grove, CA for the purpose of hiring ‘iPhone Personal Trainers.’ Honestly, that’s got to be one of the weirdest titles for a tech job, but who am I to judge?

Here’s the big question though, what is the start date? They obviously won’t start you after the iPhone has been released, so that will at least narrow down the date a little bit.

So if anyone reading has applied for this position and been told the start date, please feel free to drop us a line. We’d also love to hear what exactly you’ll be expected to do as a ‘personal trainer.’

Apple’s hiring ‘iPhone Personal Trainers,’ but what’s the start date? [via cnet]