High Bar Knocks Down Apple Shares

"This is odd," said Jobs as he sat down at a Windows-based PC to demonstrate the new Safari application.

Afterwards, Jobs once again said, "There's one last thing," at which point a picture of the iPhone came up on the stage screen.

"We've been trying to come up with a solution to let developers in [to the iPhone platform], but keep it reliable and secure," said Jobs. "We think we have a solution."

Jobs said that Apple engineers have developed a way to integrate the iPhone's features with applications from the developer community. He then yielded the stage to Scott Forstall, vice president of iPhone software, who demonstrated an application developed internally at Apple.

The application displays the contact information of Apple employees, including their work email and desk phone numbers. Forstall selected a colleague by tapping on the iPhone screen. This called up the person's contact information and a photo. Forstall showed how the iPhone can use the contact information to send email, initiate a phone call or even call up Google's(GOOG Quote) mapping application to display a satellite image of the building where the person's office is located.

It was just a hint of what's available with the iPhone. Amine Khechfe of Endicia, which makes shipping software, said he emailed his colleague during the demonstration with an idea for a mobile application.