• by Dustin , July 6, 2007

Apple has finally released the much anticipated iPhone. For those who crave flashy technology that really falls short of the mark, eat your heart out.

The iPhone, retails for a whopping $499 w/4GB flash memory or $599 w/8GB flash memory. And what do you get for your investment? Basically everything you would want a regular mobile phone to do… just not very well (especially for the price point). The iPhone sadly comes with all the basic stuff that comes with a free phone and a two year contact for AT&T (Sony Ericsson w810i, the phone I own, which also has better speakers than the iPhone), with the exception of the screen and the ever important apple operating system.

People will undoubtedly argue that these two features combined with the web will allow the iPhone to carve itself a niche in the market (whether it be equalivalent to Apple’s 1% market share hopes is up to time). There is one problem with this however, the phone only has EDGE.

This is, in my opinion, the weakest point of the phone. You can use this device as an internet browser or as a navigation device which is a nice feature. But… this all this comes to at the speed of the dated EDGE technology rendering the phone completely obsolete for those who are actually interested in the iPhone’s performance and functionality.

To that one might say there is the Wi-Fi. This is true. But I think for arguments sake we can omit the functionality of this feature since it requires a stationary hub. That’s right in order to use the tools in your MOBILE phone you have to go to a FIXED location.

I think this is saying enough, everything else is of a matter of opinion. The fact stands that the iPhone is not 3G and is not cutting edge. You have a big screen, but you can’t use it watch TV, just read the New York Times. The operating system could be awesome, but I don’t have $500 to buy one.

Cheers

D