I got up early this morning and went on both CBC News Morning with Heather Hiscox, and CBC Radio's Metro Morning with Andy Barrie. You can listen to a recording of the radio appearance here.

Yesterday's announcement of the Apple iPhone marks a dramatic shift in the communications industry, though perhaps it makes more sense to call it the Apple Phone, since Cisco owns the iPhone trademark (Comwave owns an iPhone trademark in Canada), and Apple, dropping the Computer description from it's name, seems to be shifting into more of a major all-purpose consumer brand and market force to be reckoned with. (Update: Cisco is now suing Apple over use of the name iPhone. Oops.)

Personally I've been researching the political economy of communications for over a decade and a half, and one brand, or entity that has always caught my attention, has been that of AT&T.

At times referred to as the "Death Star", AT&T is a titan of technology, responsible directly and indirectly for a substantial part of our communications environment as we know it today. Whether you take a look at the history of Bell Labs, or the long reign, and lasting legacy of the AT&T monopoly, the company casts a huge shadow as their presence borders on and at times was itself literally ubiquitous. Some of my earliest writings on the subject of technology cited AT&T as a dominant and well-positioned body to benefit from the so-called Internet revolution.

So today as the news media and general consumer marketplace swoon over and lust for a new Apple Phone, they miss the benefactor in the background that is the new and revitalized AT&T, via their wireless subsidiary Cingular.

Now mind you, I too am impressed with the design efforts put into the new iPhone. Finally a user interface that makes the advanced features of mobile computing available and accessible to the average user. As well, the Apple marketing machine will migrate a whole new mass of people into the idea of a ubiquitous internet that exists anywhere and everywhere courtesy of their iPhone device. Blackberry users already experience real-time email and chat, now a much broader segment of the consumer marketplace will join the party.

However let's get back to the issue of price. The so-called price tag on a new Apple Phone will be U$499 for 4gb and U$599 for 8gb. However that ignores the fact it requires a 24-month service contract with Cingular (o/k/a AT&T).

So the real cost of the iPhone comes out to be $4,000 give or take, depending on how many minutes/data you use, whether you pay your bills on time, as well as network charges etc. While there are ways to reduce this figure, many consumers don't know such tricks and tend to receive increased monthly bills with the adoption of smart phone, pda, ppc mobile devices. Not to mention the iPhone will be tied to iTunes, enticing you to add even more cost to the use of the gadget.

So while Apple is clearly reaping the benefits of this announcement, and is poised to enter new markets, another big winner here is AT&T via Cingular. By my projections they'd receive the majority of the revenue generated by the phone, even taking into account potential iTunes purchases.

Once the iPhone comes to Canada it will be Rogers Communications Inc. that stands to reap the benefit. Rogers has already transformed themselves from a cable monopoly to a wireless-centric company involved in pretty much all aspects of the communications industry. So they're well positioned to profit from the potential iPhone mania in Canada.

However I can't help bring this back to the power of monopoly, even in a supposed post-monopolistic age. Microsoft's reign was on the shoulders of IBM, and perhaps Apple now standing upon the shoulders of AT&T can rise to the challenge. Personally I'm rather partial to the rise of the self-made Google leviathan. It's worth noting Google has done well for themselves by getting inside of the new device, suggesting that perhaps the final overthrow of the Microsoft beast will be at the hands of an Apple + Google alliance.

Update Jan 12: AT&T announces a "De-Branding" process to change Cingular into AT&T.

Update Jan 17: Colbert riffs on the new AT&T displaying his great mix of comedy and criticism: