The iPhone Eyes BlackBerry's Turf

. Thursday, June 12, 2008

When he unveiled the next-generation iPhone on June 9 in San Francisco, CEO Steve Jobs made it clear that he's determined to turn Apple (AAPL) into a much bigger player in the mobile-phone market. Among other things, he slashed the price for the entry-level iPhone to $199, half that of the previous edition and right in line with what competitors' high-end phones cost. The move seems certain to attract new customers, especially consumers who had been turned off by the higher price. "Everyone wants an iPhone," Jobs said. "But we need to make it more affordable."

Jobs is serious about winning over corporate customers, too. Besides the lower price, Apple is boosting the speed at which the iPhone can pull in e-mail and other corporate data and making sure the device works with popular corporate e-mail programs, such as Microsoft's (MSFT) Exchange. The company has even opened up the iPhone so that outside software developers can create their own programs for the device. "We sort of checked the boxes on everything [that corporations] wanted," says Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief operating officer.

Full Story