visiongain: Apple iPhone Launch is Imminent with Helio?

Before jumping into the news here, one word of marketing advice to analyst firms announcing new mobile-related research. Make sure the release is on your website. I would think it is much more effective from a business standpoint to drive traffic to your site than some place that just picks up press releases. Just my 2 cents.

Anyway, according to a press release from visiongain picked up at VOIP Magazne, "the next product to be released by Apple is the much-rumoured "iPhone". The Apple-branded mobile phone is likely to debut this spring with the launch of Helio."

Pam Duffey at visiongain said, "The odds are extremely good that Apple will launch an iPhone this spring in tandem with Helio's launch in the US. There exists a relationship between Apple and Helio management that goes back to the ROKR iTunes phone, and Helio has declared a target audience identical to iPod's existing market. Helio's top rank executives have also publicly voiced frustration with mainstream carriers and appear to be on a crusade to radically shake-up the industry."

Helio is a U.S. MVNO partnership between EarthLink and SK Telecom. Duffy added, "The iPhone will most likely be produced in South Korea by an existing handset maker, and made available exclusively through Helio. The iPhone will likely be as disruptive to the existing carrier market as the iPod was to the mobile music industry. When the iPhone adds VoIP capability, it will be even more disruptive to carriers."