Steve Job P dg of Apple has certainly avoided to State

The announcement of the "revolutionary" of Apple phone, the iPhone, which means "reinventing the phone", sparked great enthusiasm on the part of markets and the media. The title of the Cupertino firm has benefited from successive increases in stock (see Les Echos on January 11). A priori, such excitement can surprise for a telephone multimedia player waited since summer 2002 (during which the first rumours about an upcoming "iPhone" abounded) and the characteristics presented on 10 January at the MacWorld is not quite up to the expectations.

First, there is this gap: the iPhone does not (yet) part of the third generation of mobile (3 G). Steve Job, P - dg of Apple, has certainly avoided to State. But this has not escaped to Kari Tuutti, Director of Nokia multimedia products. The iPhone is only 2 G Edge (2, 5 G), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a number of mobile terminals or assistants digital personal (PDA) offer a minimum of connected technologies. "The breakthrough in Internet communications that Steve Job's will be severely limited and the experience could be painful in the 2, 5 G navigation." Use the iPhone as an Internet terminal may be far from the promises made by Apple ", says Jonathan Arber, analyst at Ovum." As when it will be available between the middle and the end of the year only, the 3 G full swing.

Because this long-awaited terminal for the moment seems to be more than the effect of advertisement: it is not available before next June at the earliest, in this case in the United States only and a single mobile operator, Cingular. Europe will be served until the end of the year and Asia not before 2008. It is a "late exit", points out a financial analysis of Oddo Securities. As much as Apple takes advantage of these five months of waiting for the Europeans to offer a true multimedia player communicating UMTS, European 3 G standard requires.

As Steve Job ambitions for this camera, they appear finally "reasonable", "disappointing", "modest", according to the different opinion and analysis. Apple does indeed that 1 of global market by end of 2008, is 10 million units. "Little" compared to the 70 million mobile music sold in 2006 to a total of 1 billion mobile phones sold worldwide at the end of last year.

Another surprise, the iPhone seems to be used by the public, so even the price looks already high: $ 400 if enter into a commitment of two years with the mobile operator is two times more expensive than an iPod Nano or a Blackberry to 4 gigabytes of memory or even 500-600 dollars outside such a package "fidelity". Other terminals are as well and cheaper: the PDA "Q" (Q - Tek), "Motoming" (motorola), or "motorokr", in the meantime the N95 3 G of Nokia in March .

Finally, it has this name - iPhone - in which markets were used since the beginning of the rumor over four years. To learn that Cisco would be the owner of the trademark iPhone: Linksys subsidiary having launched in December a WiFi Phone to that name.

Despite these disappointments, Apple was hailed around the world. This home is explained by the credit recovered from the mark to Apple since the wide success of its iPod, as well as by more that never granted trust to Apple by its users, for some real fans. All believe that Steve Job Group has any legitimacy to enter the market of mobile telephony to bring a terminal - thin 11.6 mm, 61 mm and long 115 mm, with touch screen - combining simplicity and ergonomics. This new music player will benefit also the platform music iTunes, already in the service of the iPod, which will allow Apple to compete with rapidly Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel this market there.