Just imagine…if the iPhone turns out to be as cool, as user-friendly, as reliable, and down-right revolutionary as the iPod…then my 60 GB video iPod will one day soon be as relevant to my life as the hundreds of CDs that I’ve digitized to get rid of them.

A little convoluted, perhaps, but my point is simple: Before the iPod, it was CDs, and CD players (I had a friend with something like a 12-disc changer and he was like a god to us audiophiles), and making sure your car had a CD player, and portable CD players.

Then came the iPod, and it was like, “Hold on, now! I can store all those CDs I’ve been so careful not to scratch (and remember how awful it was when you were dumb enough to let someone borrow one of your CDs and it was returned blemished??) on this little thing?” As soon as I was able to listen to it without the pesky earbuds, man, it was heaven. Still is.

Every day as I get ready for work, there are 3 things I don’t leave home without: my coffee mug, my Palm Treo, and my 60 GB video iPod. I’m like a modern-day cowboy walking into the office with both of my six-shooters on my sides (one in each pocket making my pants sag a bit).

Steve Jobs and the wizards as Apple must’ve been reading my mind: Can’t it be simpler? Why can’t I talk into my iPod?

Very shortly, we’ll all be able to.

Here’s the low-down on what will likely be the product that coasts Apple into the next decade:

* 4-8 GB storage makes it a solid little mp3 and video player;

* 2.0 megapixel camera — I’m no Amsel Adams, but I’m guessing you can take a great pic of your best friend snarfing nachos on game day with this thing;

* As a cell phone it will have all the standard bells and whistles: calling (duh), voice mail, SMS, which allows you to text, email, and surf the Web;

* Bluetooth, for you wireless freaks out there

* And best of all, in my opinion, it’s going to work on the Apple OS X platform. What this means for the uninitiated, for those of you who are still using PCs (I have one myself, so I get it), is that for *free* you’ll get the coolest, more seamless, full-of-fun operating system on the planet.

On that note, my guess is this: If Apple can sell an iPhone to half of the iPod users on the planet, and they get used to Apple OS X, it will create a sea change in the computer market. Apple will sell more computers, regardless of price, because people who’ve never handled a Mac — and aren’t brave enough to enter the totally remarkable, awe-inspiring, yet daunting Apple retail stores — will finally get to see what the other 13% know: that Apple is the future.

Bill Paulk writes on marketing & business-related issues. You can learn more by visiting my blog at http://apple-iphone-it-in.blogspot.com/

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