For one, most of the features offered by iPhone were available to everyone for over a year already in the form of Windows Mobile 5. The phone itself looks like my Dell Axim x51v. But that is only a PDA. Dell could have expanded it to a phone and it would have been my first choice for a smart phone any time. But they did not. If they don’t do it, someone else will. In this case Apple did it. Dell’s PDA has better media capabilities, a more powerful processor and a VGA display. That PDA is already more than a year old – a 2005 story. In the second half of 2007 Apple is coming with a media device that is QVGA, that is a quarter of resolution of VGA.
Windows Mobile has most of the features Apple is bringing. But As usual Apple product will be more usable than the Microsoft product. But Apple products usually lacks features. What that means is that you may need to carry more than one device. In that respect I still prefer to see Nokia N95 in action. Nokia may not look as cool as iPhone but it has more complete features and a more global appeal. Apple may not be able to beat that. There are more innovation in cell phones outside of US. The best of cellular phones are all available only outside of US. As long as subsidized phone sales by carriers rule in the US, there may not be a lot of innovative cellular products available here. If I need a really cool smart phone, I need to import it from either Europe or Korea.
Other issues why iPhone may not be cool are
It uses similar touch screens as iPod. You know how scratch resistant they are.
It will support only EDGE for data when it arrives in 2H 2007. What? Most of the world has moved over to 3G already.
It has a non removable battery. Given the history, you will be calling Apple Service often to change that battery.
No expandable memory. Very nice. N95 allows Micro SD cards. How about that?
No WiFi syncing to your PC. After the Zune I thought the next Apple product will feature this.