Personally, after the initial excitement wore off, I decided to wait to see if OpenMoko's phone [openmoko.com] is going to be all it seems it could be. Apple lost me when they took a perfectly good computing device and made it phone+music player with some PDA functions tacked. Go ahead an mod me troll, but I've got a stack of apple laptops. I buy stuff for its value and Apple's stuff often packs good value. Not the iPhone though -- I don't see the value there.

A survey by online market research firm Compete Inc. finds that of the 26% of those who said they're likely to buy an iPhone

Yeah, you'd better run!

Inflation has destroyed the US dollar (down 50% in 5 years), so prices double of what we paid 5 years ago can be considered "par" with the fall in value of the dollar.

If you consider inflation to be the value of precious metals such as gold, then sure, you can get to absurd values such as 50% (mind you, there's no such thing as absolute reference value). OTOH, if you consider consumer price indexes, it's much lower - between 5 and 10%.

I seem to recall that Steve Jobs said when introducing the iPhone that they were aiming for 1% of the market initially.

The iPhone looks terrible to me for a variety of reasons -- locked application support, AT&T (love my T-Mobile), restrictive networking (GPRS and not EDGE/3G?), etc

It -is- an EDGE device. EDGE (2.75G) is pretty terrible though compared to real 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) service that Cingular offers. It's definitely in there for revision B but as Apple has stated they don't feel a need to implement it right now since most of the US isn't covered in UMTS/HSDPA service. That will change in the next 12-18 months when you can expect to see iPhone rev. B. T-Mobile is very lagged on their 3G deployment behind Cingular so your HTC is slow as balls anyway compared to Verizon's EVDO (which has very good coverage now) and Cingular's HSDPA (which is still in early deployment stages).

I've been a Cingular user for years, and am quite happy with them. In fact, my only complaint is that they apparently are going to become AT&T Wireless. I have a bad history with AT&T Wireless and laughed when they were absorbed by Cingular. What really chafes me is that SBC bought AT&T, yet they're the ones who gave up the name.

The author surveyed 379 people of which 26% said they will buy iPhone. That is roughly 100 people, of which 1% said they will pay $500. That is just 1 person. Whoever translates this to 1% is a "statistically challenged" person.

um. . . got mine for 100 bucks. with a 2 year contract. . . the same is for the iPhone. . . but it is 500 bucks. . with a 2 year contract.

That's ok, math wasn't your best suit.

One of the terms of the AT&T/Apple deal was that AT&T /not/ subsidize the price of the iPhone.

Don't mention your UID as a basis for any statement on /. unless it's lower than 100000. Ever.

Sorry I have to disagree with the inflation claim. If you lookup inflation [wikipedia.org] on Wikipedia and follow some inflation calculators [measuringworth.com] you will see that we have been in the ~3% range for the last 6-years.

3% / year X 6 years = 18%

That's very good. As a comparison, Venezuela's annual inflation rose to 18.4% last month [bloomberg.com].

JOhn

I don't know where you get this idea that Cingular is run by bumpkins but it's not my experience. I travel throughout the midwest (usually driving) and I've had very few problems, no more than I had while using my old Verizon account or my work-purchased SprintNextel phone. In fact, in my experience, the Sprint network is the worst.

I've been a Cingular user for years, and am quite happy with them. In fact, my only complaint is that they apparently are going to become AT&T Wireless. I have a bad history with AT&T Wireless and laughed when they were absorbed by Cingular.

Ditto and ditto.

When my contract is up I will be shopping around. ATT Wireless was one of the worst cellular providers out there, bar none - and I was stuck with their terrible service "over the hill" in Santa Cruz until I complained loud and long enough that they let me out of my contract.

And now "they" are part of Cingular. Yay. This may be what chaps me most about the iPhone; I want one and can/will pay $500.00 for it, but Cingular's service rugularly drops out/doesn't work in both metro areas I work in - a new phenomena, I might add.

Ok so they are behind a bit, Their page says that they are shipping this month. Unlikely, but I'll buy one of these before I'd ever buy an iPhone. If they do all the things they say they will do this phone will kick Apple's ass. The phone is called "Neo 1973" what that means I don't know.

This presentation isn't as flashy as Steve Jobs' but is has me way more interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRvtAAXTIlg [youtube.com]

Linux Devices has a good writeup.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2986976174.html [linuxdevices.com]

The Company Web Site
http://www.openmoko.com/ [openmoko.com]

You totally underestimate how much of the market dislikes all exisitng smartphone options and will be happy to snap up an iPhone.

The iPhone. And before you say "but they only developed a product out of preexisting technology", of course, that's what all inventions are.