Yes, I own an iPhone. No, I won't be purchasing a new 3G iPhone anytime soon. There is, of course, a huge temptation to purchase one....
TWICE AS FAST! HALF THE COST!!
....except that, once you get past the hype, it's easy to see that it's not all it's cracked up to be. What it really comes down to for me is that, for what I use it for, my (old, outdated, apparently horribly obsolete) 2G iPhone works just fine. Yes, the web interface can be a bit on the slow side, but I don't really use the Internet all that much, and the sites I do visit seem to download without an undue delay. Let's face it; an iPhone is NOT a broadband connection, so if speed is your criteria, you're still better off with a laptop.
I love my (old, outdated, apparently horribly obsolete) 2G iPhone. For what I use it for, it's great. With Apple's new App Store, I've been able to download a bunch of new thingies that make it seem almost new again. Given the still-limited 3G coverage area, I see no real reason to rush out and purchase something that would be a virtual mirror-image (albeit a slightly faster one) of what I currently already have. That's $199 plus $20/month that I can use for other things- or, better yet, save.
My other reason for not rushing to my local Apple store is that the iPhone is still a work in progress. Though I still believe that, for my money, the iPhone is the best smart phone on the market, it still has a ways to go. Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way. There are still some very simple feature missing from the iPhone that really should be standard. Perhaps at some point they will be, but I'm not going to hop on the 3G train until it makes sense for me to do so. That may be a few months or more, but until I can see a measurable and demonstrable advantage, I'm going to hang onto my money. When you get right down to it, it's NOT twice the speed at half the price. It may be twice the hype at a different price structure....
Don't get me wrong; I love my iPhone, and I'm glad I bought it. It's an amazing feat of engineering if you think about it, and it's capable of doing things I'm only now, after three months, beginning to realize. To call it a toy would be silly, but it's having a similar effect on me. It's an expensive way to keep myself entertained, but it certainly beats drinking or meth, eh?
