First off before I jump in and comment I’d like to make things clear. There are two kinds of geeks; those who believe in the “more is always better” philosophy, and those who believe in the “fewer but works better” philosophy. Now with everything else in the universe these are not absolutes. People can and do switch sides but for the most part I think most geeks can be separated into these two camps.

Okay, this isn’t an official review, since I don’t have a review unit and will not spend $2,000 of my own money to buy one ($600 retail plus the AT&T contract).

Wow Jeff, a classic straw man argument in the very first sentence! Is he wrong? No, but the crafting of that sentence is misleading. First, there are two models of the iPhone, one with 4GB of memory and one with 8GB. You’ll spend $600 for the 8GB one and $500 for the one with 4GB. So what about the other $1400 Jeff claims you’ll spend? Well he is right about the contract over the 2 year term.

The cheapest contract AT&T offers is $60/month. Over two years that is $1440. So what’s the fallacy here you say? The fallacy is in thinking that you can get a smart phone and not spend that $1440 over two years.

I’ve had smart phones with T-Mobile for the last four years. My T-Mobile plan was 1000 minutes and unlimited internet for $80/month. I’ve been paying that for the last four years. That’s a grand total of $3840. And I won’t deny that’s a lot of money. But is it out of line with what AT&T is charging for iPhone service? Nope. I set my iPhone up with 900 minutes and unlimited internet (all iPhone plans have unlimited internet) for $80/month. In other words, I’m going to pay the same I’ve been paying.

So if the net difference between phone and data plans is zero, then all you really have to worry about is the price of the phone.

It’s either an insanely overpriced iPod or a not very good phone

Or quite possibly an excellent phone, an outstanding iPod and a great web surfing device.

Let’s look at some of the features and misfeatures of this thing rationally, shall we?

By all means Jeff, after you:

Apple has gone out of their way to avoid using the term “smartphone” so I won’t knock it for the lack of business features like editing Word or Excel, or even saving such file attachments to the file system (which it can’t do).

I thought you weren’t going to knock it? But since you have, let’s take a closer look at this. Business features like editing MS Office documents? While I don’t doubt there are people who do such things on their phones, I’m afraid I need to see some study results indicating that even a quarter of all smart phone users do this on their phones. Of all the people I know who use Blackberries or other smart phones, I can only think of two of them who might edit MS Office files on their phones. Everyone else uses their phones to view files and then they either call whoever sent the document or email them back. Which is exactly what the iPhone can do.

Let’s look at this objectively.

Jeff, I have to point out that you lost all objectivity when you titled your article, “The iPhone is a bad phone” and then proceeded to state that you haven’t even tried one.

no tactile feedback for dialing

When was the last time I dialed any phone purely by touch? Never. Are there people who do? I have no doubt. I also have no doubt that such people are in the minority.

no voice dial

When was the last time I used voice dialing on any phone? Never. Are there people who do? I have no doubt. I also have no doubt that such people are in the minority.

no smart dial (ie dialing 5478 to narrow your contacts to KIRV)

So what’s faster and easier? Figuring out which numbers to push to wind up at KIRV, or opening my contact list, tapping ‘K’ in the side bar, tapping on Jeff Kirvin, and tapping on the number to call?

no Bluetooth stereo headset support

You may actually have a point here, but you have to remember that Apple is about end user experience. Does the user have a good experience if their headset dies in the middle of a song or video? That can’t happen with a corded headset. When it comes to phone calls though, stereo is really pointless. Pretty much everything going through the phone system is monaural.

no dial-up networking support for an attached computer

I’ve had that capability for the last four years and while I have used it, it hasn’t been so often or so necessary as to keep me from buying an iPhone. I don’t think I’ll miss it.

2.5G data that is normally about 2-3 times dial-up modem speed

Apple’s stated reason for this is limited 3G in the US, and battery life concerns. I can tell you that an iPhone was not in my future as long as the rated talk time was less than 8 hours. There are people out there who will sacrifice battery for speed. I’m not one of them. I’m not going to carry around a power adapter and extra batteries all the time. The phone goes in my pocket at the start of the day and needs to run all day. The iPhone does this. I can wait 10 seconds longer for a web page if it means I don’t have to carry extra batteries and/or power chargers every where I go.

no video recording

I’ve never needed video recording on a phone. Who needs video recording on a freakin’ phone? It’s a freakin’ phone! My Nokia can record voice calls. I’ve used that feature zero times.

no MMS for sending pictures

Why use MMS when it has email built in? Just attach the pictures to an email and send them off. Does MMS make it easier than email? No it doesn’t. My old Sony P800 supported MMS and you know what? It was just like addressing and sending an email. So I’m happy to skip the middle man and just send pictures as email attachments.

only takes pictures at 2MP and automatically resizes them to VGA for email (no way to override either of those sizes)

Only 2MP? I’d like to meet the fashion photographer who only uses his cell phone for magazine shoots. For all other cell phone picture snapping purposes I think 2MP will probably be just fine.

but other SIMs will not work in this GSM world phone

Correct. It really is tied to the carrier. That’s the price of a product that’s leading edge. How many times have you tried to put a sim chip from a foreign carrier into your phone Jeff? I’ve done it zero times with any of my smart phones. No doubt there are people who need this ability. Also no doubt that the majority of Americans don’t.

there is no free 14-day grace period and if you buy an iPhone today and return it tomorrow, you’ll have to eat a 10% ($50-60) restocking fee.

Actually, you have a 14 day grace period and will have to pay the fee if you open the box. If you just want to play with one go to an Apple store. They have a bunch of them that are fully activated and useable. Try before you buy.

The battery is not only not removable

No it’s not. Fortunately it has an 8 hour talk time rating. But if you like walking around with wall chargers and spare batteries all the time there are plenty of phones that will require you to do so. As I said earlier, I get up in the morning and put the phone in my pocket. I know it’s good for the whole day even if I use it heavily.

when it dies (after 300-400 full charges) you have to send it back, for a fee, to Apple and get it replaced

So how many full charges do other phones take before their batteries need replacement? You know, I’ll bet money I won’t need a new battery for the duration of the contract with AT&T. So how about some education on batteries? Here’s a link I found that explains it. How many cycles would my Nokia last? My old Sony? Who knows? What ever will I do if I need to replace the battery? Well considering I have a four year old iPod with it’s original battery, I’m not really worried about it.

Mobile Tech Review reports that an hour long call dropped the battery to 15%

After reading the “article (shame on you for not linking to it Jeff) Considering that bluetooth and wifi were both active, that would result in about 6.5 hours of talk time. I’ll be finding out first hand just how well the battery stands up.

explain to me why this is a phone worth $500 and a two year contract

Jeff, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This phone isn’t worth it for you. You’re looking at a laundry list of features. For you the longer list is the better product. However for lots of people it isn’t the list that’s important, it’s how well the product functions. From my usage of the iPhone over the past few days I can tell you it’s an excellent phone, a great iPod and a great web browsing device. Apple’s industrial design is top notch and the iPhone is no exception. I’ve not held any phone that feels as top-shelf quality wise.

All of my previous smart phones have been capable of those things but none of them have been able to do them nearly as well as the iPhone. The iPod was expensive and compared to the portable music players out at the time of it’s introduction, feature incomplete. However it continues dominates the market. Why is that?

Quality matters. Having a list of features a mile long won’t help if the implementation is lousy. Form matters. Function matters. Put them both together and you have a product that can dominate.

As for the price? In the purchase of my last two smart phones I’ve already demonstrated my willingness to spend $500+ of my own money for a phone. Motorolla proved it in the mass market with the Razor and I’ll argue that the iPhone is far more functional than the Razor.

The two year contract? I’ve been with T-Mobile for the last four years. Only one of those was under contract. Two years only matters if AT&T sucks and so far I don’t have any complaints other than their signal isn’t as strong in my home as T-Mobile’s.

Only time will tell if Apple has a hit with the iPhone, but the initial results are pretty good. Right now I think the only thing that can kill the iPhone is AT&T. Perhaps when Microsoft comes out with the Zune Phone…