iPhone is the name used to refer to the combined digital audio player and mobile phone rumored to be under development by Apple Computer, based on the company's popular iPod player. "iPhone" is no longer expected to be the final product name. Many analysts expect Apple to launch the iPhone in the first half of 2007, possibly at the January Macworld.[1][2] Apple previously collaborated with Motorola to integrate iTunes into the under-performing ROKR.[3]
Hype among analysts and Apple fans has driven great anticipation for the rumored product; Apple shares hit an all-time high of $88.14 on the Nasdaq on November 21, 2006;[4] in after-hours trading following the December 1, 2006 patent publication, Apple shares were steady at $91.66.[2]
In summer 2006, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, told analysts that the company wasn't "sitting around doing nothing" about the wireless industry.[5] On November 14, 2006, the Taiwan newspaper Commercial Times reported that Foxconn/Hon Hai Precision Industry, manufacturers of the iPod, had won a contract to produce 12 million mobile handsets for Apple.[6]
While there had been no product announcement until January 2007 [1], the general media consensus was that such the product would carry the "iPhone" name. The domain "iphone.org" had been registered to Apple since December 16, 1999, and Apple has held trademarks on "iPhone" in Australia and Singapore since 2002, with various other filings worldwide. However, InfoGear, now owned by Cisco Systems, filed a U.S. trademark for "iPhone" in 1996, gaining full registration in 1999.[7] Cisco's Linksys unit later revived the trademark for a line of VoIP-capable handheld devices, putting Apple's use of the name in doubt.
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