iPhone: Sweet or Sour?

As of this writing, the iPhone is now released. Big whoop. It's yet another cell phone device in a sea of cell phones. So, what is it about this phone is so appealing to certain people? Well, other than the touch sensitive screen and the auto-rotating wide to portrait sensor, I'm not so sure.

Why exactly do you buy a phone? Well, I would hope you buy it to make calls and answer calls. All of these other 'bells and whistles' are just that. But, even as great as the fun stuff is, there really are some major drawbacks to this phone that shows just how novice Apple is at creating cell phones. Let's list them now:

Benefits:

Auto-screen rotation
Excellent GUI interface
Looks like a Mac (because it really is MacOS X... sort of)
Touch sensitive screen
Bright and wide display
iTunes
Case design

Drawbacks:

Bright Wide Display (Why? Draws lots of power, not visible in sunlight)
Touch sensitive screen (Why? Can't dial you phone by touch...use both hands)
Case design (Why? Will likely scratch easily like the iPod)
iTunes (Why? It has iTunes, but can't download directly to iPhone.)
Battery (Why? It's not user replaceable! After 1000-1500 charges, must trash.)
Does not offer 3G
Locked to AT&T network!!! (Why? Well, I'll let you figure that one out yourself)
Forced to use a very specific $60-70 AT&T Wireless plan!
Yes, it runs MacOSX. No, can't load third party apps on it (not without hacking it).
Battery Life

For a $600 device PLUS $60-70 a month, this is a very very very (did I mention very?) expensive phone with way too many drawbacks! There are plenty of other smartphones on the market that easily have similar enough functionality to this phone that are far cheaper, work on other networks, offer 3G and even have user replaceable batteries. For the caliber and the quality that this phone is supposed to embody, it really has so many flaws that I consider it a version .5 (beta quality) phone. However, this really is par for Apple's course. They come very close, but miss the hole the first time out. Then make a hole-in-one the second time around. I'll personally wait to see what iPhone 2.0 looks like. Likely, Apple will have addressed each of these drawbacks above and added a bunch of new features to boot.

So, it's your choice. You can dump $600 + $60 monthly for a .5 version iPhone or you can go with another phone that will work equally as well for far less money and much cheaper service. If you take the plunge, just be sure that you buy an insurance policy on your plan so that when you either lose the phone or the battery no longer charges you can get a new one without paying another $600. I personally recommend waiting until Apple addresses these issues in iPhone 2.0 which will, inevitably, be available in about 6 months (or less).