SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday made the company’s long-awaited jump into the mobile phone business, unveiling a gadget that’s controlled by touch, plays music, surfs the Internet and runs the Macintosh computer operating system. He then renamed the company to just ”Apple Inc.” to reflect its increasing focus on consumer electronics.
Jobs also unveiled a TV set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers to their televisions.
The iPhone, which starts at $499, will ”reinvent” the telecommunications sector and ”leapfrog” past the current generation of hard-to-use smart phones, Jobs said.
”Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” he said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. ”It’s very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. … Apple’s been very fortunate in that it’s introduced a few of these.”
Apple shares jumped more than 6 percent on the announcements.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
