Oh, but that is so trick. At $299, we’ll talk. $599? Can’t do it, Steve. Sorry. Cell phones, no matter what else they do, should share no pricing territory with laptops.
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Not to justify the price, but I would argue that essentially it is a “laptop” of sorts. It’s running OS X and supposedly will support full blown versions of a lot of Mac apps. My issue with it is for $600, I want full blown 3G network capabilities (it’s only 2.5G, so slower internet and other access over the cell network) and at least 20 GB of solid state memory. Hell, make it 30. And only Cingular? Fffft…I’m not paying $600 and going through the pain in the butt of switching carriers on top of it.
I have little doubt it will be a runaway smash success though. You’re getting the iPod, video playback, a better camera than most current phones, wi-fi, and with all of the apps you can run on it, it might be a Blackberry killer, so some companies may sign on and buy them for their suit and tie road warriors.
Me, I’ll wait until the second or third generation and take another look. I’d consider switching carriers and paying that much if it does everything–and I mean everything–I want it to, plus has about 3 or 4 times as much storage. And is smaller. And smites my enemies.
You’re right, of course; to be fair, it is considerably more than a phone, despite its name. It just always seems like the “carry-one-gadget” solution, whatever capabilities that may entail at the time it’s “born,” is never as inexpensive as I think it ought to be. I bit on a gadget-laden PDA four years ago for this exact price, and what it’s made me realize is that none of the included capabilities are good enough for me to want to do it again. I would rather have a real laptop, a good dedicated digital camera, etc., and have a PDA that excels only at being an address book, calendar, and limited note-taker. The other functions I think I’m going to enjoy wind up being compromised far too much to fit the form factor.
I’m not saying I’ll never try an attempted all-in-one device again. I will go play with an iPhone, just because I think it’s at least even odds Apple got the ergonomics right on it, given their recent history. But if I ever do have one, I suspect it’ll be a 2.0 or so, as you indicate you might do.