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I watched the 20-minute iPhone tutorial hosted by the creepy Steve Jobs clone, I saw David Pogue’s annoyingly spot on funny iPhone non-disclosure video (someone get this guy a sitcom), and I read the reviews from Mossberg, The NY Times, Newsweek and USA Today. After all that, frankly, I’m a little iPhoned out. With so much iPhone information floating around, I almost feel like I already have the damn thing. If you’ve been wondering why Epicenter hasn’t had a lot to say about the iPhone hype, it’s because our brothers in geek solidarity at Gadget Lab have been taking the lead on this one.
I do want to mention one thing about the iPhone that really disappoints me: the telephone service being tied to iPod-functions. Gadget Lab’s Charles Sorrel points out that in order to use the music features of the iPhone, you will have to sign up for a phone plan. I personally know of at least three geeks who refuse to use AT&T for cell phone service and had planned on buying the iPhone just for music, video and wifi Internet functions. Those plans will have to be scrapped. While this hardball decision shows an incredibly strong commitment to AT&T from Apple, it ultimately cripples the reach this product could have at launch.
It’s not just the biggest telephone launch in history, it’s also the biggest force feed of one service to get another. None of the just released reviews address this issue, so we’ll have to wait until Friday for hard confirmation that service-less iPhones won’t play music. Either way, now those of us happy with our existing phones get to torture ourselves for the next year waiting for a phone-less touch screen iPod. Sweet!
