Rumors about Apple getting into the cell phone business have gotten investors and consumers alike excited for years now. According to Apple rumor site ThinkSecret, the personal computer pioneer and MP3 player king registered the domain iphone.org way back in 1999, before the first iPod was even released. Since then, the URL has redirected people to Apple's homepage.

This may change in the next few months, however: When? January 2007, during Macworld Expo in San Francisco. That is when the most recent rumors expect Steve Jobs will stand up on stage holding an iPhone publicly for the first time.

According to ThinkSecret, Apple scaled back its ambitions a bit for the first iPhones: Instead of re-inventing the wheel, the company used some off-the-shelf parts and current iPod technology. In addition to the first model, there may be two or three others rolled out throughout 2007.

The first iPhone is said to feature a 2.2-inch display, 3.3-megapixel camera and an instantly recognizable Apple design, with the company's usual elegant user interface. There will be iSync support and complete iTunes compatibly, of course. The idea is that people will go for this single device rather than both an iPod and a cell phone.

Unlike the widely panned Motorola ROKR E1 from last year, the first cell phone with iTunes compatibly, the iPhone won't be limited to a 100 song capacity. The only limit should be the amount of storage available on the device. The same goes for photos.

No word on whether there will be support for video as well. Although one would think that since users should be able to take high quality video with such a high megapixel camera, there will be the capability of downloading movies and TV shows as well.

Reports also say that like the ROKR when it was first released, Cingular Wireless has signed an agreement with Apple to carry the iPhone exclusively for six months; which means other operators won't be able to offer the device until mid-year.

Introduced in October 2001, Apple sold about 58.1 million iPods as of this past July. An Apple insider reportedly told ThinkSecret that the company expects to ship an amazing 25 million iPhones next year, during its first 12 months or so of introduction. Motorola, by comparison, sold more than 50 million RAZRs, the hottest cell phone in the world, since its introduction in 2004.

Can Apple, new to the cell phone game, top or equal the number two mobile phone vendor on the planet, without Motorola's carrier connections and experience in the field?

In July, an executive alluded to an Apple cell phone for the first time. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said, "As regards cell phones, we don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And we're not sitting around doing nothing."

Merrill Lynch analyst Richard Farmer believes there's a tremendous upside for Apple even if it takes only a small percentage of the mobile phone market, which could hit 1 billion units in 2008. He said every 1 percent captured by Apple would equal up to $3 billion in incremental revenue for an iPod/phone hybrid that sells for about $300.

"Although the potential for iPod phone is not news, its financial impact is not in consensus estimates and the fact that management publicly alluded to it (albeit indirectly) on the conference call reinforces the possibility that its introduction could be near enough to influence consensus estimates within the next 12 months," Farmer said in a research note in July.