Boston College @ iPhone Launch!

Today Steve Jobs rolled out a tech-industry keiretsu that slices across half a dozen industries. Marching out on stage to join Jobs at the launch of the iPhone were Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, and Cingular CEO Stan Sigman. The iPhone ($499 for 4GB, $599 for 8GB) won’t be out ’til June (pending FCC approval), but a range of firms from Palm, Motorola, RIM, and Microsoft are likely scrambling to the labs in a Herculean task of matching the jaw-droppingly slick model demonstrated by Jobs. A 2 megapixel camera, an integrated mic in the ear buds, automatic detection of portrait and landscape displays, WiFi, 3G/EDGE compatibility, real web browsing with Safari, running a version of OSX, and the slickest touch-screen ever invented (no keyboard – screen keys & icons morph depending on action) make this more ‘pocket-Mac’ than phone. Google Maps were simply the slickest ever shown. Seemless integration with e-mail highlighted Yahoo mail. Cingular gets a multi-year exclusive for the US. And in a throw-down, Jobs claims they’ll sell 10 million by the end of 2008 (Europe gets theirs Q4, Asia in ’08) – a 1% share of the WW 1 billion handsets sold last year. It looks like Apple got everything right, from voice-mail that can be browsed out-of-order by touch, to screen expands/shrinks via a ‘pinch’ gesture. In the way that old-timers remember their reaction when the first saw a Mac or a web browser, the iPhone will be etched in the psyche of a new generation.

On a personal note, 24 grad students in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management were able to enjoy pastries & coffee in the “V”VIP line, along with the CEO of Intel, a founder of Google, and other tech luminaries. The TechTrek field-study course is grateful for the exclusive access to MacWorld we’ve received for the past 3 years by Apple SVP WW Marketing and BC alum, Phil Schiller. TechTrek is an intensive, for-credit course capped with a two-week field study that takes us to Seattle, SF, and the Valley with high level access to Apple, Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, Sun, Starbucks, VCs, startups, and many others. A series of over 30 ‘master-class’ sessions are lead by co-founders, c-level executives, partners, as well as mid-level managers, all providing learning that greatly exceeds what we can do in the classroom.

For a recap of Graduate TechTrek 2007, see this Heights article.  Alumni & firms wishing to get involved should contact Prof. Gallaugher at [email protected].