Will the next iPhone be thinner, cheaper, perhaps cooler? Will it come with new features such as video chat and a global positioning system? For months, speculation has swirled.
Today, Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.'s chief executive, is expected to end the guessing game and unveil the second version of the iPhone at Apple's developer conference in San Francisco.
This is not just any updated product. Some analysts say the future of the company depends on the iPhone becoming a consumer hit of global proportions.
"Apple's stock is going to go where the iPhone goes," said Andy Hargreaves, senior research analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. "It's the new growth driver."
The key question, they say, is whether Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., cuts the price of the iPhone to dramatically boost sales.
On June 29, 2007, Apple began selling the 8-gigabyte iPhone at $599 in the U.S., drawing lines of eager buyers outside its stores. It quickly became a cultural icon (with a cameo appearance at the Oscars) and changed the way many people viewed mobile communications.
The iPhone is a combination phone, Internet surfing gadget and digital entertainment player for listening to music and watching video. It is being rolled out slowly in international markets. Apple started selling the phone in countries such as Britain and Germany and is expected to start distributing in Asia soon.
The phone hasn't been without controversy. Less than three months after it was launched, Apple dropped the price $200, angering many who had already bought it. And the company frustrated software engineers by limiting the kinds of development that could be done on the phone.
Meanwhile, some people began using the phone "unlocked," without AT&T Inc.'s cellphone service or with software applications that Apple hadn't approved. Some of them found that their iPhones did not work after Apple issued a software update.
The company has tried to mollify grousers. IPhone owners who were angered by the price drop received $100 in store credit. Apple created a software developer's kit for making features and services for the phone, and Jobs is expected to launch an iPhone "applications store" today that will sell programs made by outside developers.
Riding on the iPhone's shoulders is the expectation that if it is a big success, it could spur sales of Apple's Macintosh personal computers, analysts say. That would be similar to the way the popularity of Apple's iPod media player is often credited with the rebound of the Mac.
