The rumor is that Apple Computer will release the cell-phone named "iPhone" next January. It seems "almost certain".
However, there is special market that is a "Carrier-driven market" (Sorry, I don't know exactly word in English) in Japanese cell-phone market. This means that each carrier has special own cell-phone hardware. So I can only buy a cell-phone that contracted carrier sells.
I think that this market structure is accelerating technical innovation of the cell-phone.
However each carrier develops proprietary technology. Also function of the cell-phone is pretty cutting-edge. But on another front, the Blue-tooth cell-phones are really few. (I have never used Blue-tooth function of my iMac.)

There are big 3 carriers (cell-phone operators) in Japan as of 2006 (excluded OKINAWA area and PHS).

• NTT DoCoMo (53%)
  
• KDDI (27%)
  
• SOFTBANK (15%)
  

I've been using cell-phone of NTT DoCoMo. This contract is by my company. (Company pays cell-phone fee)
However, the rumors are that the iPhone will be reselled by SOFTBANK. This means I can not buy iPhone.

I really don't like this Japanese cell-phone's market structure.
(This topic was a little hard to translating for me)

tag : cellular phone