So, if all the rumours are true, Steve Jobs will tonight announce the long-awaited iTunes-compatible phone which Apple has been making in conjunction with Motorola. Later on today I'll be going to a north London satellite link-up with San Francisco, where we'll hear more details: and I'll (hopefully) be blogging live from the scene.
But forget the hype: has it been too long?
After all, it's been more than a year since we knew this was on the cards. And a host of other music phones have hit the market in the meantime: many of them are quite good, and they're improving all the time.
In my opinion, Apple's really going to have to pull something special out of the bag. While it might look good (and Motorola's regained its status as a highly fashionable handset manufacturer, so I expect it to), the crucial aspect is going to be who actually wants it, and the restrictions placed on the music on the phone itself.
And here's the rub, for me at least: mobile networks already place highly restrictive digital rights mechanisms on downloaded music. Apple's likely to be enforcing its iTMS DRM on the phone, at a time when there's little inter-compatibility between songs I've downloaded on my phone and songs I've got on my larger music collections. Add to this the fact that there's also little inter-compatibility between different manufacturers. And if I switch phones (which happens regularly), I lose all the music - and all the money I've spent. If I'm going to be persuaded to buy an iPhone, I want all of these issues resolved.
Ease-of-use will be paramount, and it has to be said that iTunes is one of the easiest ways to buy music... but will that draw in enough new business? After all, if Apple's merely going to succeed in getting people *already* using the iPod/iTunes combo to switch from, say, their underperforming iPod shuffle, then I don't think it will have been worth the effort. We want something special... but can Apple deliver?
