I am still waiting for Apple to ditch Cingcrapular and go with T-Mobile

You actually think Apple is going to "ditch" Cingular? More likely is the case that they will open up their model to other providers, but I doubt Cingular is going anywhere.

The iPhone offers a great web browser interface. And the music interface is great if you need that on your phone. The email app is just not that great for heavy-duty use. It is slim and pretty, but that doesn't make it the best at everything.

Yeah, it's really a great phone for personal/entertainment uses. But even with Exchange support, it's still not really a business class phone. Has anyone heard if the new version has copy/cut/paste support when editing text? I know the original didn't.

I'd love to have something that has the look and feel of the iPhone, with the business features of a BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile smart phone. That would be the best of both worlds, and something I'd snatch up in a minute.

What features besides cut&paste would you consider geared toward business users? I did not see this feature mentioned for version 2.0 of the software.

A real keyboard.

Centralized management.

The latter is a deal-breaker in many organizations. There's a whole thread over tin Travel Tech right now about someone wh ois upset that their company is switching to RIM-only and discussing why companies do that; it is all about control of the data.

The original iPhone was $499 or whatever it was and required a 2 year deal with a minimum of $60 per month. Now, it is $199 and $70 per month. But, I'm guessing I can't just go into an AT&T store, buy the iPhone and unlock it. I'm guessing I'll have to sign up for a plan right in the store if I want to take the iphone home with me.:td:

I think the keyboard is really a personal preference thing. I've grown to like the virtual one, and it's accuracy improves with use (learning) and acclimation. If the keyboard is accurate and easy to use, then I think the virtual style a more rugged design without physical buttons to get damaged.

As for centralized management, how would that benefit the business user? That seems like more of a benefit to IT departments instead of users.

I can't vouch for AT&T stores, but I bought my iPhone in an Apple store and walked right out with the unopened box. Activation was done at home, via the web. ^

You could do that at the AT&T store too. But with the new phone, I don't think that will be the case anymore.

Is that just a hunch, or have they said they are changing the model? The self activation saves a lot of time, plus I doubt Cingular (or who ever in the future) is going to be eager to do more activations if they are getting a smaller piece of the pie.

My cousin bought an Iphone at the apple store to bring to his brother In Argentina.
When i saw him a couple of weeks ago , he had it working on his home service
(with his old sim card) 2 days after his brother arrived.
He told me that the hardest part of the whole unlocking process was actually
getting the SIM card slot opened.
He also changed everything to spanish.

I've found that the virtual keyboard cannot keep up with fast typists. Since I can touch-type on my BB keyboard while walking down the street I've outpaced the iPhone.

And I'm guessing you meant to emphasize the word "user" instead of "business" above. As for how it benefits the user, when industry regulations require management of data then you have a choice of access via a managed interface or no access at all. I think that access is better than not. And there's the benefit.

It doesn't directly benefit users, except for when your IT says "We only support this type of smart phone, so if you buy anything else, we won't allow it to work with our network." So without those types of features, many companies won't support it, and therefore, the phone is of no use to that company's employees as a business phone with full synching of calendars, contacts, and e-mails. That's the situation I'm in. No BlackBerry Enterprise Server support, no access to our Exchange server. Many companies are very hyper about a lost or stolen smart phone granting an unauthorized user access to sensitive company and client data. With BlackBerry, and some other systems, corporate IT can set up security policies that lesson the chances of that happening. Sure the password protection and disabled features on my BlackBerry are an inconvenience, but it's the price I have to pay if I want to use it with my job.

I typed a 200 word e-mail to a client on my BlackBerry a few weeks ago just after boarding my DEN-IAH flight, just before the door closed and we pushed back. Granted it's slower than a regular keyboard, but it got the e-mail out about three hours earlier than it would have had I not had the phone available to do it on. Based on my experimentation with the iPhone keyboard, I'd hate to have to try and type that much in just a few minutes. I'm sure I'd get faster and more accurate on it, but I find it hard to touch-type on, since there's no physical differentiation between the keys.