AT&T says received 1 mln inquiries on iPhone

The iPhone sits on display at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, January 9, 2007. Cingular Wireless has received about 1 million inquiries about Apple's upcoming iPhone, AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson said on Tuesday.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Cingular Wireless, the mobile unit of AT&T Inc., has received about 1 million inquiries about Apple Inc.'s upcoming iPhone, AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson said on Tuesday.

Cingular, the largest U.S. wireless service being rebranded as AT&T, will be the first to sell the music-playing iPhone when Apple, the maker of the popular iPod music player, begins shipments in June.

While Cingular is not taking advance orders for the iPhone, it set up a section on its Web site inviting visitors to leave their e-mail addresses to receive information about the phone when it is released.

"One million people have asked us to call when this phone is available," Stephenson said in his keynote speech at the CTIA wireless technology conference.

Apple has said it could eventually sell 10 million iPhones, which play music and video and have a touch screen. The version with 4 gigabytes of flash memory will cost $499, while the 8-gigabyte version will cost $599.

AT&T shares rose 1 percent to $39.68 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Apple share were flat at $95.85 on Nasdaq.