SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Apple Computer plans to launch a device dubbed an iPhone that combines its iPod with a cell phone, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in San Francisco Tuesday.
"Apple is going to reinvent" the telecommunications sector and "leapfrog" past the current generation of multimedia phones, Jobs told the Macworld conference.
Cingular Wireless will provide the phone's cell phone service, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The half-inch-thick iPhone has no keyboard or dial pad, Jobs said. Instead, it uses touchscreen technology to make calls, watch videos, listen to music or sync to a computer.
It comes with a built-in two-megapixel digital camera, a slot for headphones and a SIM card.
Jobs did not immediately provide details on price or availability.
The product gives Apple access to the wireless market, which accounts for nearly 1 billion handsets a year, the Journal said. By contrast, Apple has sold nearly 70 million iPod portable media players since 2002.
IPod sales growth is slowing, the newspaper said. It was up 75 percent in 2006 from the previous fiscal year, but down from the 409 percent growth the year before.
