This was expected, and an announcement is coming tomorrow at Macworld, WSJ is reporting, citing sources: Apple is launching an MVNO mobile phone service and a phone, with Cingular as the network provider (As someone points out in the comments below, no indication yet whether it will be an MVNO or just a joint Cingular-Apple service...it might actually be the latter...my mistake on jumping to conclusions here).
The rumors have been going on for year on the Apple phone and in the recent month Wall Street analyst have been coming out with pieces of details and forecasts.
Some points:
-- If Apple unlocks the phone, that also means T-Mobile subscribers can use the phone as well...T-Mobile is the other GSM major here.
-- This also means the bad blood between Apple and Cingular over the Rokr Itunes phone disaster has been resolved.
All the Apple phone rumors, leads, analysts reports etc on our dedicated Apple page here.