iPhone Mania

That's the iPhone. It's hard for me to see why all the fuss. It's just a phone and not only this, it's a very expensive phone (iPhone cost: $500 for the 4GB model, $600 for the 8GB model). Ok, leaving aside the cost of the iPhone, at least I'll own a piece of the apple right? Actually no. The iPhone also comes "bundled" with AT&T's plans, and get this, the lowest plan is $60/month, plus a $36 activation fee (source). Not even this, but it's a minimum of 2-year plan. Ok, so how much does the iPhone makes you spend in the first 2 years of its usage (assuming you're not purchasing any iPhone accessories)? $1976. That's right, almost $2000 for a phone. Anyway it's your choice. You want to buy it, well the line for purchasing an iPhone formed like 3 days ago, so go ahead and be there when the iPhone launch date is due (29th of June, 6pm).

I would not buy it right now. I would wait let's say for at least 3-4 months until all this hype finishes and we get some real iPhone reviews to see exactly what the drawbacks are, and what advantages such a miracle device has. Plus, if sales are good Apple is going to keep the same prices, if sales aren't good, they'll cut the prices and you'll spare some money (also towards the end of the year more promotions are available).

Some (lucky?) journalists already had the chance to review the iPhone, and given their feedback these are the major issues with the iPhone: comes with AT&T's plans, doesn't have games or instant messaging, doesn't allow video recordings, has no flash support, no voice dialing, no removable battery (that's right, to be changed you have to send the device back to Apple), no memory card support (you're stuck with 4/8GB) and other minor issues (see Gizmodo's list).

Critical Consensus did a pretty good scorecard based on the iPhone reviews from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek and USA Today. The result is a rating of 76.5/100 for the iPhone. Pretty good for a first release, but one thing is missing from these reviews: THE iPHONE PRICE! That's a major issue and if it would have been considered the iPhone's score would be around 50 out of 100.

Anyway, if you want to be part of this iPhone mania go ahead and droll over the shiny photos that Apple posted. You've got to give them at least this, they're good at creating hype given their background with the iPod. And I'm sure that on Friday when the iPhone is officially launched the web will explode, you can already hear the zzzzz of the news hurricane that's about to hit.