Depending on who you are and how your willing to live, taxes aren't always inevitable, but Apple is surely going to produce a mobile phone with the mother of all MP3 players built in. Personally, I see the Apple iPhone (as it would possibly be known) maybe even being an iPod that we are all already familiar with. What a change of pace it would be to see cellular phone tacked on as the afterthought rather than the MP3 player. Heck, throw a small camera onto the Video iPod, add the cellular technology and the world is set for mobile video phone calls. How cool would that be?

How long until Apple introduces their phone? Not anytime soon according to American Technology Research. "While we firmly believe that Apple has been working on cell phone technology, we believe its much hyped imminent entry is overdone," wrote analyst Shaw Wu in a research note Tuesday. Perhaps Apple is content currently to license its iTunes for use in Motorola products, perhaps they have agreed to not enter the market as a condition of the license of iTunes to other cellular phone makers. The research firm predicts Apple could enter the cellular market as early as mid-2007, but they are betting its 2008 or 2009 before Apple makes the leap.

Via Forbes.com