The iPhone Launches and Now There's Global Peace

Is it me? Or does it seem to anyone else that the launch of the iPhone is being heralded with lots of iHype? New industries are springing up as people are trying to figure out how to get out of their current cellphone planes to switch to a plan that utilizes the iPhone features.

Now, many of you know that I love hand-held tech and should have already been standing in line for this one. I just don't think we're a love match.

Here are a few things that concern me:

• You can only use it on AT&T service (which 2/3 of users don't have)
• It doesn't have a removable battery, so you can't keep an extra battery charged and on-deck (saved my bacon on numerous occasions). If it goes bad, you have to send it in for replacement--just like the first generation iPods.
• The face of the iPhone is vulnerable to damage. I have a clamshell designed, Kyocera 7135 smartphone. After years of use, there is not a single mark on the screen. Point of fact, when I took it in to my local Wireless Toyz store (I go there to breath in all that tech air), the owner snapped a picture of it "I've never seen something so old that was in such great condition!" Get ready to purchase a case to fix this design flaw.
• It's a multimedia device that lets you do some work-related stuff (email, calendaring, etc.). Just don't count on being able to do those bread-and-butter things easily. There's still no verdict on whether or how well it will interface with corporate servers (like the Blackberry).
• There's no mechanica keyboard and no stylus. You tap an onscreen keyboard and programmatically, the iPhone guesses what you're trying to write. Neat. However, mechanical keyboards have proven to be difficult for women with fingernails and men with fleshy fingers to use.
• Credit Suisse, in their analysis of the market, think that women will be the surprise buyers, purchasing the device like it was a new Prada bag. They're banking on female vanity. Um, good?

I wonder what everyone else is thinking.