The sneezers are singing the praises of the iPhone today:

• Om Malik (communication and telecom blog) here on the end of an era (or mark of a new era) and here on form factor and packaging
• Mark Evans (Canadian telecom blogger) here
• Paul Kedrosky (finance, VC, and tech blogger) here on capital market reactions of Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and RIM/Blackberry to iPhone showing
• Matt Marshall (at VentureBeat) here
• Esme Vos (Muniwireless blog specializing in municipal wireless coverage) says here that we need more muni WiFi just for the iPhone
• Kottke (uber independent blogger) here

Some of the competitors are shrugging or more lukewarm:

• Microsoft's pre-emptive pooh-pooh
• Nokia VP's statements that the iPhone confirms convergence but that 2G device slant (versus 3G device) was a surprise

Other notes:

• Cingular has 58.7 million subscribers (see here)
• "iPhone will be available in the U.S. beginning in June 2007 in a 4GB model for $499 and an 8GB model for $599, and will work in combination with Apple's iTunes running on either a PC or Mac." (Cingular news release)
• Note that I am not clear whether the prices above are retail or inclusive/net of typical handset subsidies that are borne by carrier as part of subscriber acquisition costs. There have been reports that a 2-year contract is required, but it is still not clear whether the prices mentioned are net of subsidy.
• Apple wants to sell 10 million in 2008 (here). (Note: That's a lot of subscribers and/or channel pumping given my first bullet point above in this section and given an exclusive carrier relationship)
• Random history on iPod pricing (post includes graphs)

It will be interesting to see what the mavens of the world uncover about the iPhone specs. It looks like a cool device presentation-wise for sure. I am curious how the battery life will be though. I am used to running my iPod down on power, but I don't like running my cell phone down on power.

Updates (1/11/07):

• Paul Kedrosky on the stock market the day after and on the five biggest issues with iPhone
• How iPhone was kept a secret (article also answers the question about why they disclosed so early)
• Comments by Orange (an international operator)
• Tom Evslin on how Apple failed to reinvent telecom
• LG lookalike