Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) finally unveiled the heavily-anticipated iPhone with a widescreen touch-screen – completely eliminating buttons. Announced on Tuesday, priced at $599 for 8 gigabytes of memory, $499 for 4GB, pushing the company’s shares up as much as 8.5 percent.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the iPhone will ship in June in the United States. The phones will be available in Europe in the fourth quarter and in Asia in 2008.

Apple said Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless network, will be the company’s U.S. cellular partner. Cingular said the contract is “multi-year and exclusive.” That’s very unfortunate for people like myself who are locked into a T-mobile contract… hopefully they’ll still find a way for me to “Get More”.
Sam Rahman, a portfolio manager at Baring Asset Management Inc., which owns Apple shares, said the iPhone and AppleTV, the newly renamed device that allows consumers to send video to their home entertainment systems, could prove to be big boosts for the company.

“Right now the stock is trading on product announcements,” he said. “It could drive additional growth for Apple at a time when they need to find another hit beyond the iPod.”

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