iPhone.. oh boy

Well we all knew this was on the way.. Hints, rumors etc all over the net for the last x years now.. Well it is here.. or should I say announced. Unlike the usual announce and ship soon after Apple is now announcing for a June ship time frame. As many know the FCC can not keep a secret so the second they submit this for approval the world would know about it. Steve decided to announce this before it goes for approval so they could start the hype machine now themselves.

I will not go into all the specs of this phone specifically. Apple claims that this is THE Smartphone.  Now while I think this phone looks sweet I would not go far enough to call it a smartphone. It does have lots of cool apps for it but many questions still remain.

1) Can I add more apps myself to this? Certainly any power user who has a smartphone now knows that the phone they purchase is only a platrofm that allows them to add all the apps that they want to suit their needs. The widgets could do some of this but Apple has not made it clear how easy it would be to add and remove those apps. I would like to see some IM client (iChat anyone?) , RSS feed reader, Skype? , Alarm clock, Slingplayer.. just to name a few that I use myself on my smartphone.

2) Why no 3G? It seems that with such a focus on the internet connectivity for Safari and email then why not 3G network.. I have been using both the TyTn and the Blackjack and I would not be happy to give up my 3G connectivity. EDGE is much better than GPRS but in the world of today 3G seems to be a requirement for a phone in this price range.. Heck even T Mobile is going to offer 3G this year (we hope).

3) Can you tether?  I know this is not something that everyone wants to do but many power users tether their phones for internet connectivity with ther laptop computers while on the road. This is certainly one of the first things people asked about the Blackjack, the Q and all other high profile "Smartphones".

4)Can the email client handlel multiple accounts? I know the push Yahoo would be great for people to get email quickly when it arrives but many business users will want to get their other buseinss accounts or personal accounts. Having more than one account collected would be great.

5)Document Reader? What business user will not want to be able to read PDF, Word and Excel attachments on their phones. Maybe not edit them but at least be able to look them over. Especially on that great looking large screen. I know many users do not use this functions but it seems like a feature that is on just about all smartphones out there today.

Now some of these questions may not address the target market that Apple is going after. I can see a customer like my wife being able to use this phone and maybe even getting more use out of SMS and internet and email as it looks quite easy to use. The power user who filles their phone with after market apps may find this phone a bit limiting.

On that note.. I have to say this phone does look very nice. I am certainly tempted but as with all phones there are benifits and then things you have to give up to enjoy those benefits. For now I am very happy with my Windows based phone which does everything that I need. How long till we see a new Video iPod using this same screen technology?