Plus
******
3G is a must have for more sophisticated cellphone markets
iPhone was never that interesting to a European audience without 3G. With the US economy in the tank shiny US gadgets need foreign markets (I’m in Europe at the moment and have had my existing iPhone switched off since I’ve been here).
GPS
All GPS devices, including the better than average Dutch Tomtom, are crap. Finally the promise of a great UI and value ad apps.
3rd Party Apps.
The distribution model and developer tools look great. Heads need to roll at Rim for falling so far behind here – hell they are the Microsoft of Mobile and DOS was all about the 3rd party apps.
Price
Great price point – but caveat emptor, the subsidy could mean nasty rate plans.
Minus
******
Will never be an enterprise device
It still looks like a luxury device and without a keyboard, Blackberry’s are still the right kind of crappy for a business audience, just like the inferior DOS OS. The enterprise focus is nice but will never bring dominant business market share.
Rate plans?
Where are the details about AT&T rate plans for 3G iPhones? I hope there are no nasty surprises.
OM Malik raises some pertinent points about 3G load – which makes me think there may be an expensive, bandwidth capped plan.
Upgrade contract
Reading the small print, even merely upgrading from an existing iPhone means a new 2 year contract. Other phones do not make you do this.
.Me integration
People who use things like .Me sit in the sliver between Gmail/Flickr etc. users and Outlook users. There is too much of a switching cost to make .Me anything other than a distraction.
Roaming
The Vulcan-like grip that Apple software has had to have to have over hardware products to satisfy the record companies make it difficult enough with multiple iPods. With cellphone carriers it may be worse. Multi country iPhone roaming charges are a criminal rip-off, and swapping multiple SIMs (something that is a 2 second job with most phones) means software issues.