Renderings made by Japanese artist Isamu Sanada and published at Applele.com depicting his image of an Apple cell phone.

The images seen on the right are in fact renderings of an imaginary Apple cell phone made by Japanese artist Isamu Sanada and published at Applele.com. On Thursday, ePrairie inadvertently confused them for real images. We regret the error.

Though hundreds of Apple fans (writing from @mac.com addresses) typed e-mails to ePrairie elucidating the mistake and pointing out that these images sport an altered Apple logo that deviates from the company's true logo (there isn't a "bite" in the apple and the leaf is pointing the opposite direction), the events that transpired prove that Apple fans are indeed as passionate as they have been tagged.

Upon initially confronting Apple with the pictures, Nathalie Welch, a spokeswoman for the company, only said in an e-mail to ePrairie that she "can neither confirm nor deny the rumors that Apple is developing a cell phone or discuss unannounced products."

After publication, she added: "Unless and until Apple officially announces something, it is just a rumor. Also, your Photoshop skills may not be that great, but many people's are. We get jokes and mock-ups of stuff like that all the time."

Representatives from Motorola – a local company that has been known for working closely with Apple – initially declined to confirm or deny whether or not the Schaumburg, Ill.-based powerhouse was involved in developing the chipset of such a phone.

But several analysts, who say Motorola would have been a logical partner, were duped by the pictures and said the release of a cell phone would make sense for Apple.

"It would fit with Apple's whole digital universe strategy in which the PC is the hub of your digital universe and the iPod (Apple's mobile MP3 player) is a peripheral," said Kevin Hunt, a research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners who covers Apple but hadn't heard of such a cell phone in the works.

He added: "Apple has been very vehement that they wouldn't get into handhelds because they think handhelds will go away and blend into a cell phone, so it would make more sense to come out with a cell phone."

Other analysts, though, were less convinced: "I've talked to some component manufacturers that say Apple's going to do this and some that say they won't," said Dan Niles, an analyst that covers Apple at Lehman Brothers who has heard conversation of an Apple cell phone.

He added: "I'm not sure how this fits in Apple's current business strategy. I don't view it as synergistic as the iPod. Yes, you can transfer your contact list [from your computer] with a cell phone, but it hasn't necessarily been proven that people are using the data capabilities of their phones anyway."

Hunt said that Motorola and IBM have banded together to develop chips for Apple's power PCs (the G4), and because Apple wouldn't make its own cell phone chips, Motorola could have been a likely vendor if such a product ever existed. He added that the cell phone would probably be a combination device that has much the same functionality as a handheld.

From Motorola's vantage point, the sense was similar to Apple's take.

"I can't comment on rumors," said Amy Halm, director of communications for Motorola's networking and computing group, "but I can say that Apple is one of Motorola's most valued customers and has been for a very long time. Apple's customers are some of the most passionate customers in the world. Every time Apple introduces a new product, they have the most loyal following of any company I've ever seen."

While the pictures to date haven't been real, the possibility of such a move still remains. Hunt said this would be a very new market for Apple that would complement its own product line rather than try to compete with the big cell phone makers.

He says it would make sense for Apple – one of the most "tightlipped" companies he has ever covered in terms of speaking about products before they're ready to ship – to begin talking about the phones in the middle of 2003 in anticipation of the next Macworld trade show. Hunt said the price point for such a combination device might be between $300 and $500, or that of a higher-end phone.

The renderings named the phone the Applele hiPhone R4 and were dated with a September 2002 time stamp.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief Reporter's Beat: Telecom adam@eprairie.com AOL: PureAdam11 | My LiveJournal (new!)