New "iPhone" may be phone and pc
Apple readies itself for it's next great product since iPod...

SAN FRANCISCO: For functions from e-mail and instant messaging to mobile MySpace and ESPN, computer users are increasingly turning to the "fourth screen" — the one on their cellphones — which is evolving to adopt more characteristics of the three previous generations of screens: movie, television and computer.

That shift may well be underscored on Tuesday when Steven Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, is expected to unveil an Apple phone representing his company's new mobile communications strategy — highlighted by a device that may include Jobs-inspired refinements like a sleek ceramic case and a transparent touch screen.

Industry executives and competitors say that Apple has developed the first of the next generation of devices that are closer to personal computers in pocket form, meaning that they will easily handle music, entertainment, productivity tasks and communications on cellular and other wireless networks.

But while Apple quickly dominated the music-player category after it introduced the iPod in 2001, its challenge with a phone would be far more difficult.

While Apple was early to portable digital music, it would be distinctly late in entering the world of Internet- connected digital hand-helds. Arrayed against it are giants including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Microsoft, in addition to entrenched hand-held companies like Palm and Research In Motion.

Also waiting to enter the fray are powerful Internet companies like Google, which cannot afford to be cut off from users who now rely on them in the desktop computing world.

"Apple is about to touch off a nuclear war," said Paul Mercer, a software designer and president of Iventor, a designer of software for hand-helds based in Palo Alto, California. "The Nokias and the Motorolas will have to respond."

Read all about it here, courtesy of iht.com.

Eric