Here are some things I don't understand about all this rapturous iPhone talk (and let me say, I think the thing is gorgeous and might buy one just to look at it):
1) Why does everyone act as though Apple is a David slaying the Goliath Palm? Apple has FIFTY TIMES the market cap of Palm, hugely more resources, etc.
2) Why does everyone take Apple's PR and showmanship at face value? It may indeed be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but until there's a LOT more information, it's almost literally insane to think that it will live up to ALL of the hype.
3) What makes everyone thing that slow releases, etc. are the fault of the phone manufacturer (i.e. Palm)? How many people realize the HELL involved in working with carriers, their 3 month certification cycles, etc.? What makes anyone think Apple will have an easier time of it than anyone else?
4) Expensive phone, most expensive unlimited data plan, not G3, VERY uncertain battery life (I suspect anywhere from poor to terrible), maybe no third party apps, no removable battery, difficult one-handed use, no experience with real users, Yahoo?, etc, etc.
I know the Kool-Aid looks and smells great, but I wouldn't be drinking any until a lot more is known.
Marc
1) I don't think it's David slaying Goliath, but Palm is getting slain, all the same. Honestly, there's just about no hope for Palm to survive in the long term without a serious acceleration of their next OS release (ALP, or whatever) and maybe Hawkins' "secret" device by the end of this year, if it's as cool as I expect it will be. And I say this as a very long-time Palm user. I never would have considered switching to Windows Mobile, but I won't think twice about a mobile device running OS X.
2) I agree that there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding iPhone. But regardless of whether iPhone sells well or not, the gold standard for mobile user interfaces just got rewritten today. Nokia, RIM, Motorola, etc. are all going to have to rethink their ease of use as a result of this announcement. This is another reason why I think Palm will have trouble surviving in the long run. It takes them way too long to catch up to innovations like this. Unless Microsoft manages to overhaul Windows Mobile, and then at least the "W" Treos will stand a chance.
3) Apple solved this problem by partnering with one exclusive carrier, and then announcing the phone six months early, which will give Cingular plenty of testing time. They're also, as you mentioned, a much bigger company with a lot more pull in the tech world than Palm could ever dream of. Apple will still run into problems with Cingular, I'm sure, but Cingular will be much faster to resolve those issues when that phone call from Steve comes in.
4) The phone is expensive, but when you factor in not having to buy an iPod (at least, if you were a nano owner) it's not really that bad. Unlimited data is a bit more expensive via Cingular, but I'm with Cingular already, and have been for years, so this is not an issue for me. Having to sign on for two years of contract REALLY sucks, but then again, iPhone will only work on Cingular's network for many years, from the looks of it, so where else would I go with it?
No G3 is a bummer, but WiFi will be available to me at least 70% of the time. (Once the city of San Francisco gets completely wired for WiFi, even more.) And a future gen of iPhone will be 3G, according to Steve during the keynote. Besides, my 680 doesn't have 3G, either.
No 3rd-party apps I find nearly impossible to believe. Apple can be stupid about this sort of thing, but it won't take long for them to see the that third-party developers are the key to iPhone's long-term success. It's OS X in there, after all. Why not let people write programs for it?
Battery life was pretty well stated, except for standby time. Steve said clearly that iPhone would get 5 hrs. of talk/wireless email and browsing/video, and 16 hours of just iPod music playing. Apple already got in trouble for exaggerating battery life on iPod way back when, and ever since they've been understating their battery life a bit. So it's really just a matter of standby time to determine if this will be an issue at all. I suspect it will get 20-24 hours of standby, at least, which is better than I get with my 680, in any case.
I'm not sure one-handed use will be an issue. At least, no more an issue than trying to hit the menu key on a 680 when you're holding it in your right hand, or trying to hit the option key when you're holding it with your left. The on-screen buttons look big enough to hit with the ball of your thumb. The rest of the interface looks fairly easy to operate with one or two hands.
I'm sure this thing is not for everyone, but it's pretty much exactly what I need, and what Palm was almost—but never quite—able to give me. I like the Treo a lot more than any other phone I saw before today, and iPhone trumps Treo in just about every way for me. So, yeah, I'll drink that Kool-Aid.