Mobiles and gadgets

Last week at the launch of the iPhone by Steve Jobs in the US, there were many announcements by the man in the black turtleneck skivvy including a new Mac OS and a number of apps to go with Apple products. But there was one word missing from the whole presentation.
Many observers noted that while there was lots of talk about ‘i' this and ‘i' that, there was barely a peep was made about that other "i"-branded gizmo, the one that virtually single-handedly made Apple a household name in the first place.And even though Jobs stood on stage and spoke about the three foundations of Apple, i.e. the "iMac, iPhone and Music", the word: ‘iPod' was not mentioned at all. Could that be because the iPhone is basically an iPod in disguise along with a phone built in and having a web browser and camera as well?And could it be that the iPhone, which some say will be priced around the $350 mark in Australia, making it about the same price as an 80 Gb iPod Classic, is designed to quickly dominate the still expanding consumer smartphone market, the same way it did with portable digital music players, well before its rivals even knew what hit them?Some have noted that this also makes sense in practical terms. Why carry two devices around when one will do the same job and some?The mobile ecosystem may still be evolving, but convergence is still a major part and as one observer put it, "With the industry rapidly moving toward all-in-one devices, Apple may have no choice but to risk starving its own golden goose as it attempts, again, to shed its image as a niche maker of personal computers and introduce a second mass-market gadget in less than a decade".