The iWait is over for the iPhone

With the launching of Apple's latest product in the US today, time will tell if the iPhone lives up to expectations, writes Karlin Lillington

Today Apple iPhone hype reaches fever-pitch. With the launching of the long-awaited, potentially revolutionary device at 6pm California time, anticipation of a kind rarely seen in the electronics world will meet reality.

With the first gushing advance reviews from four of technology's best known - but also usually Apple-friendly - journalists having been published last Tuesday, at least we know it isn't a total disaster.

"Matches most of its hype," said New York Times columnist David Pogue, for example. But whether it can possibly match the long build-up of expectation and, more importantly, address some of the wariness many text- generation consumers are likely to have for a costly phone with no keyboard remains to be answered.

One warning: if you have hated all the breathless iPhone foreplay that has been going on since the device's announcement last January, you're really going to hate the summer full of geek pillow talk that's about to follow.

Analysts estimate that as many as 200,000 phones will sell in the first three days, with up to two million units in the second half of the year. Apple's only forecast is that it expects to sell 10 million of the phones next year.

Irish consumers, however, will have to wait until the end of the year to see the iPhone on sale here.

IPhone is Apple's foray into the mobile world. Clearly emboldened by its domination in the digital music player market with its iconic iPod, Apple finally announced in January what Apple-watchers had been expecting for some time - an iPhone that would cross the iPod with a mobile handset into something typically Apple-unique.

Not content simply to offer a stylish conventional handset with a music player built in - something many handset manufacturers already offer - Apple chief executive and wunderkind Steve Jobs reversed design direction and more or less brought the handset to the minimalist design of the iPod.

The result is a slim little gizmo that quickened a lot of pulses at its announcement not just for its style brio and daring (no keyboard, few controls, a very big screen and reliance on a touch screen interface), but undoubtedly also at its price - $500 or $600 in the US for two models (€372-€446).

Running on Apple's Mac OSX computer operating system, the iPhone, say many, is really less a phone than a hand-held computer and iPod with a built-in phone. Fans will say this justifies the price. Detractors say that, as usual, manic Apple fans, always among the most devoted in the world of brands, will go forth and madly pay premium prices for electronics available elsewhere for much less.

An initial broad-based consumer survey earlier this month revealed that, far from being seen as an elite item for the well-heeled, the iPhone had crossed market barriers (unlike most smart-phones, generally pitched to a business audience) and was already attracting strong interest from a wide range of age groups and income levels.

The iPhone's price premium rose even further as details of the required phone plan from Apple's exclusive partner AT&T were announced during the week. The cost of a requisite two-year contract - yes, that's right, two years - would come to at least another $1,400, or $60 a month (€1,040 or €45), and possibly as much as $2,400, or $100 a month (€1,783 or €74).

Apple shares dropped slightly at the phone plan's announcement, but AT&T shares rose 55 cents.

Around the US, buyers had already started camping out in front of some retail Apple Stores by the middle of the week, and a few enterprising California students were offering their services as paid stand-ins to hold a front-of-line place for well-heeled buyers. One student had already printed up "iWait" T-shirts for himself and friends to wear as they camped out.

Meanwhile, at PCWorld.com, writer Michael Lasky is offering tips on how to avoid iPhone envy - spruce up your ordinary handset with downloads and programmes to get similar functionality.