Apple rumoured to debut mobile phone at WWDC

Let's hope it's not as disappointing as the Motorola iTunes phone from 2005

3 August 2006 10:49 GMT / By Amber Maitland

The WWDC countdown is now beginning in earnest, and the most talked-about rumour is that Apple is finally going to unveil its mobile phone.

The rumour started when Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg wrote, “Now, Apple is working on other projects built on the same end-to-end model as the iPod: a media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub.”

Now one Apple blog has published a photograph which may show the new iChat Mobile – or it may simply be some Apple-obsessed Photoshop wizard who has mocked up his vision for an Apple phone.

From the image, it looks as though Apple are planning to properly integrate iTunes into the phone and make it a true iPod mobile device. But will it include VoIP capabilities, or even wireless linkup?

Apple has also joined the Khronos Group, which is a mobile phone industry consortium that is “focused on the creation of open standard, royalty-free APIs to enable the authoring and accelerated playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices.”

Other members include all the major mobile phone manufacturers, including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG.

Apple joined at the same time as Google and Dell, so how much this tells us about the company's mobile phone plans is unclear.

Count down to the WWDC in San Francisco: 4 days left

Via TUAW

Full tags

Phones, Mobile phones, Apple