iPhone to Apply for Position as God: Product Review

Apparently Apple's iPhone is the greatest thing to ever happen to mankind. Move over Jesus, move over telephone, move over automobile, move over Macintosh...the iPhone, the messiah of all geekdom, has arrived.

By a show of hands, how many of you are tired of hearing about the iPhone? Yes, I see that hand. You poor soul, sitting their in front of your computer (forearm elevated), just wanting to hear some worthwhile news from the word of technology.

I listen to two Apple-related podcasts. I will leave them nameless for the simple fact that I enjoy and support them both and I do not wish to give them any negative press. However since June 29, that fateful day, both of them have talked about nothing but the iPhone on every show ever since it came out. My favorite Apple-related websites have done the same (e.g. Macscour, Macword, The Unofficial Apple Weblog). I like Apple. I pretty much think that pretty much every product they come out with is great (with a few exceptions), but this is insane. Every Apple-related news site I visit it's iPhone, iPhone, iPhone!

For many consumers the iPhone is quite out of their reach either because of it's steep price point (starting at $499 USD) or because many wireless users are already locked into a contract that they can not easily break and therefore can not enter into contract with At&T (the iPhone's exclusive carrier).

The consumer attitude of "I want my way right away" overcomes me and I grow annoyed at the fact that my beloved and long-awaited Mac OS X Leopard, originally slated for a Spring 2007 release, has been postponed by Apple. This was due to the fact that Apple had to move resources from the Leopard project over to the iPhone in order to meet its promised June 29 release date of the ubiquitous phone. My response is "what about the 'promised' Spring 2007 release of Leopard?" Is it ethical to break one promise in order to make good on another? So those of us who have been waiting since August 2006 for Leopard must wait another few months because of the release of a product that we can not afford anyway.

I furthermore find myself in the midst of a personal paradox and that is I can not shake my capitalist mindset. My education in business tells me that I can not blame Apple for their course of action. I can not say that if I were Steve Jobs that I would not have done the same thing. It is true that the appeal of the iPhone and it's usefulness crosses platform and product loyalty lines in a way that Leopard can not. Still, all the hype really bugs me. I want Leopard running on my Mac Mini. I want my way right away.