I'm sure they're not going after the price sensitive geek, but more the early adopters, and fashion phone people. Apple products are always cutting edge in some ways, but crippled / limited in other ways.

I have a lot of MacOS X applications already. I also make my own dashboard widgets for various things. Maybe they'll run on the phone.

Im more or less not price sensitive. But Im not going on Cingular and it has to do at least as much as my TyTN does. From what Ive seen thusfar, it isnt even close to being able to do that.

Comparing this to a Treo 650 is just silly. The Treo is an ugly device, running an unfriendly OS built mostly on technology from 1997. It has no WiFi, multimedia options are very limited, its browser is extremely basic, its screen is mediocre.

ah well... historically Apple has never been about price points, but more about great end user experience. if one can afford it, great. if not, there are other phones/plans out there.

Yes and no.

The lack of 3G is quite simply surprising, and disappointing to say the least. I'm secretly hoping it's a software update for the radio.

The things it does do that the TyTN also does look much much better on the iPhone. The Interface is everything WindowsMobile should have been. WM hasn't evolved much at all since its first version.

I'm sceptic about the lack of a keyboard or stylus, I simply don't see myself typing a long email onscreen. The lack of business style applications shouldn't be an issue if the device really does run full OSX and is open for developers.

Some things not mentioned (so probably missing)

Voicedialing/commands
Vibrating alerts
Messaging light
USB charging option
removable battery


Other than that there isn't really anything spectacular. No GPS is a little surprising since they are so focussed on Google Earth. Adding a GPS chip to it shouldn't have made much of an impact on the price or design.

No expandable memory is a big downside.

That said, I have no doubts it's going to be a huge success, if this is their first attempt then the second one is going to be just insane.

This is a silly calculation. Whether you have an iPhone or a Samsung clamshell, or a Nokia you'll be paying the same voice and data charges. In fact, the iPhone is priced in the same area as the 8525 and Treo 750, and both of those only come with 64/128Mb.

Of course a phone costs more over it's life span. But the iPhone doesn't make anything more expensive. I can pick a $25 Blackberry from T-mobile and make the same calculation as you just did.

OSX is more stable than palm or windows. Granted I don't know if they've made any modifications for the iPhone, but since its backbone is UNIX it gets a ^ from me.

Will it allow people to use iTunes as ringtones?

I would hope so, since Jobs makes such a big deal about the music you buy being yours; being able to use your own music as a ringtone would be reasonable thingto do.
The 2-year contract is mandatory, unless you feel like paying the ETF. You have no option for a cheaper plan if you want to be able to use your iPhone to the fullest.

I own a T-Mobile MDA Vario. Did a three-way trade back in July, but effectively I got it for $200 (what it cost me to get the T-Mobile SDA origially). $55 for a pair of 2GB miniSD cards. Costs include shipping. So, $255 for the phone and memory.

I'm on a prepaid plan. For $40/month, that would get me 400 minutes each month. I really run closer to about 200 minutes a month; most of my friends use about 300 or so. Toss in a little extra, let's say 350 minutes. $35 a month. EDGE data for prepaid is free (There's a glitch in the system, asked a T-Mobile CSR a few months ago who said they know about it, but off the record it's not really affecting the network so they're not going to do anything about it for now). One year of voice and data (me), $240. One year of voice and data (350), $420. Two years(me), $480. Two years (350), $840

Total cost:
One year (me): $495
One year (350): $675
Two years (me): $735
Two years (350): $1095

This is with all taxes and fees included. My solution doesn't have all the nice polish of the iPhone, doesn't have the shiny photo management system, and it doesn't have MultiTouch. On the other hand, it has a physical keyboard, and no matter what Jobs might say, keyboards without tactile response suck, even ones with full-sized keys. In addition, my fingers are not small by any means, yet I have no diffculty navigating the MDA Vario without a stylus. In addition, I know for a fact that my phone can be unlocked (since I did it myself with lokiwiz; very handy free piece of software); Cingular is a pain to get unlock codes for, and are even more so with exclusive phones.

From my other posts, I hope I've made clear that what *I'm* interested is a balance between utility and price. There are *others* out there who share my views, people who keep a budget; the calculation is for them, just to give them pause; the commentary can be ignored. People to whom price is - regardless of income - no object won't care about such figures; fine. You maybe lucky enough to drop this cash/credit and not have any qualms about it; great. However, (and I say this in consideration of the average debt of American; you might not be American, or carry a balance on your credit card) some of us actually like not carrying a balance on credit cards. Then there's the group of people who *would* be budget-conscious, *should* be budget-conscious...but are easily distracted by shiny things. Don't laugh; that was me a few years before, and there are lots more people like that out there. There are probably a few who are reading this thread as I type.

To me at least, the iPhone isn't worth $500+ in shiny versus my solution and my solution is available right *now* on the network I want to use, which happens to be when I want to use it.
Windows Mobile has never froze/crashed on me. The only time I've had to turn it off/reset it is when I'm swapping a battery.

ok, so price aside, It is worth it, It JUST WORKS! That is how Apple has done things, it just WORKS out of the box. I will be going from Verizon to Cingular just for that phone. It's that Easy.

3G (all CDMA really) requires a ton of power to transmit and receive data and voice. That's why GSM phones have such ridiculous battery life ratings compared to 3G phones, and why the blackjack ships with extra batteries and chargers (keep a battery at work and one at home and swap them twice a day). Shipping the iPhone as a GSM/EDGE device means it will get a lot more life out of a charge than if it was a 3G device.

Personal reaction: I like this a lot. Lots of points to Apple for bringing a multitouch interface to the market. Interface in general appears well thought through, but hard to tell from a demo. Definitely a bit apprehensive about the lack of tactile feedback, but Apple has a solid enough history with interfaces that I'll withhold judgement for now.

Curious about the sms interface. Looks decent, but I want iChat/data integration (ie, i don't want to use SMS to transmit messages unless I have to).

I'm a little bit held back by the lack of a 3G radio, but wifi is so near ubiquitous now that I could deal with EDGE when wifi doesn't exist (though... not sure I'd pay $20/mo for EDGE). Doesn't mean I've ruled out waiting for the next rev (especially given Apple's history with first gen products).

Biggest diappointment is the memory. It's not enough to synch all of my music, so it doesn't really mean that I get by with one less device (ie, replacing iPod and phone with iPhone). Another possible reason to wait (for me).

It also seems to leave a bit of a gap or imbalance in the iPod lineup. What if I don't want an iPhone? What if I have to use another carrier? The current iPods look so pedestrian next to the iPhone. I'd wager that we'll see a non-phone version of this by the time it's released in June.

Also, if it's "open source" (note that's in quotes) like the full version of OS X is, that could present lots of opportunities for add-on/aftermarket applications and the like.

The widget interface did look identical to that on OS X full versions, so I suppose it might be possible that all/most widgets can be loaded on the iPhone. That would be pretty cool.

The price is already high and they need to cut every penny possible from cost I'd imagine.

Also I suspect that it was easier for them to licence EDGE for cheaper than 3G. No doubt more models will come out with 3G, particuarly as this phone does not have a snowball's chance in hell of being profitable in Europe without 3G.

So expect the 3G version to come out in the UK at xmas when they are releasing the European version.

But the price is atrocious. And are people in the US still sticking themselves to 2 year contracts? Man, awful move. Anybody who would actually be early adopter enough to buy this phone would be miserable if they are still using this same old thing in 18 months time year let alone two 2 years.