I hope Apple has absolved the iPhone from their '1st gen reputation'

for all you iphone haters it's going to be the best apple product ever made. the only thing i ain't crazy about is the iPhone battery but when companies like this are going to have kits that let you replace the battery by yourself this product is a 10 out of 10 in my little book.

Alecia

but I don't think any of these devices offer platforms as wonderfully flexible as iTunes for content purchases with usage rights across a line of devices. And "open" to developers or not, the apps are only as good as the OS. Witness the sad iPhone clone attempts being programmed like iContact and iLaunch. --Uh, way to go?

Without integrated touch controls, people are left either tapping styluses on little scroll bars, or constantly clicking little keys on a mini-plastic keyboard. Instead of "flicking" to scroll, you have to press down and hold a plastic button which feels about as natural as stepping on a large pebble with you bare feet. Also, if I had to keep staring at the left and right corners of the screen to tell me what the menu buttons below do NOW, I think I'd go crazy.

I'm stunned at the people who want to cling to plastic buttons still. Flick, tap, pinch and slide. I'll only be positive after I use it, but that paradigm sounds a LOT easier for my fingers. and a REAL OS makes me feel like the future is amazingly bright for this platform in ways that Apple will continue to update Gen1 on for at least the next couple of years.

What a lot of you FAIL to note... is that Apple has had a pretty good track record on its consumer electronics, namely... the iPod. While there was a row about first-generation battery life after some years, I NEVER had this issue. Moreover, I've gotten the first-gen Nano. ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS. In fact, because I'm getting the iPhone, I've been telling myself to send my sister my current Nano... but its really really hard! This is a lot of new technology, but hearing reports, like the one recently in USA Today on how thoroughtly they are testing these, and how important this is to the company... come on. This is a no-brainer. I'm not interested in waiting another 6-8 months because I want to be super-cautious. This thing is almost necessary for me. I've been on the fence with all the existing smartphones due to the highly subjective acclaim that many of them seem to get for web browsing and general features.

The only ones that look moderately good (for me) are ones like the Nokia n95 or the n800 (Internet tablet). Helio is probably by far the best runner up price-wise, with the n95 being the feature favorite

"either they don't care about market share or they are so confident of their product people will buy it even if it's a brick with the apple logo on it."

its a phone that redefines all phones thats why I'm buying it - not because it has an Apple logo on it.... Also I doubt you prolific stateent tthat there will be iPhone clones coming out in months time.... Where's the ipod Clone, Wheres the Mac Clone, Wheres the Itunes Clone, Wheres the MacBook Clone.

History shows that Apple just does stuff right. There may be products that come out like the iPhone but none of them will work as well as the iPhone.

Now go play with your Zune.

I wouldn't call it an "Apple's first gen curse" but an "Every Retailer's first gen curse". Let's face it, all new products that go out have some problems, and sometimes these problems are so severe that they are scrapped. Apple has created a mass hysteria in their fandom for PR purposes and that's the reason many people will extensively look for faults and reasons to bash the machine and its hype. It's nothing new or at least it's not so innovative as ipod was + its features are kinda showing a long R&D time that maybe was too long. Within the next months, you'll see so many phones cashing in on the multi-touch fashion created by Apple that you'll wonder what all that hype was all about.

One more thing: When MS entered the console market they sold their Xboxes too cheap (I think at one point MS was losing 60-80$ per Xbox) so that they could aggressively gain a sizable market share. With the iphone I see a very steep price + 2 year plan and it clearly seems that either they don't care about market share or they are so confident of their product people will buy it even if it's a brick with the apple logo on it.

"Apple is taking the industry bull by the horns and reinventing the user interface just like they did with the original iPod."

Well Said Mars.

Thanks

Excellent post.

Very different issues indeed at play here. Sure, it stands to reason that the testing for the iPhone is unlike any testing Apple has ever done, simply because of the mass adoption rate everyone's betting on.

But think about this ... you buy now with everyone else. Soon, you're not as cool as you might think, simply because millions of others have it. That's not a problem per se, but the days of being the first with an apple product are kind of behind us.

The other thing is assuming it's flawless in terms of problems, there is the cost and physical factors that undoubtedly come with any technology. The first iPod was big and 5G and expensive. Now, we're on the verge of 100 GB.

You can bet that Apple is already developing more iPhones in a variety of flavors ... from business-friendly devices with no cameras and super Microsoft Exchange support to smaller devices to devices with 16GB and 32GB of memory -- and eventually you'll pay $299 for a phone with 32GB of memory. And, furthermore (whew!) we all know that 8GB isn't all that much when we're talking about music and videos.

So ... that said .. what to do? I'm a Mac junkie. Early adopter is my middle name, even though I'm still on my al-book because it is perfect in almost every way. Anyhow, the only reason I'm holding off is because I'm stuck in T-mobile hell. If I was on a month-to-month contract, I'd be camping out on the sidewalk here in Chicago right now. I'm a firm believer in owning something now and not waiting.

You can always wait. You can wait for everything. But you don't have forever to wait. Enjoy the day. Seize the moment. And be among the proud million people walking around with iPhones on June 30th.

And then ... in a year or two ... spend $299 or $399 or $499 for the next gen iPhone ... with a 7MP camera, GPS, nike sport built in, 64 GB memory, flash support, 3G, free leather case, scratch-proof surface, etc., etc., etc., and enjoy that just as much.

ENOUGH!!!!!!

What about all of you that got first gen - Blackberries , Razors, Motorola Blackjacks and any of the microsoft.... clones.

Why did you buy those without question .... ???

If you want the iPhone you know you do just buy it. This is what all of us have been waiting for. Why sit here an micro analyze the whole thing. The released date is days away.... you should be securing your place on line and not worrying about this stuff

I'm still looking forward to a "iPhone Dirty Little Secret" website and astroturf campaign. With such huge amounts of money at stake, you know there's at least one FUD campaign waiting in the wings.

I think it's safe to say that the iPhone has been adequately tested:

http://mobilitytoday.com/news/007758/iPhone_testing_public

With how important this new business is to the future of Apple, there's no way that they wouldn't test the thing to hell and back.