iRant

You will all have to bear with me on this one. This has been stewing for about a day now, ever since my F5 riding ass read the up to the minute reports straight out of endagdet's CES coverage.
Thats right, I'm talking about the iPhone. Its the current super buzz topic and I don't think there is anything short of free energy that could take that title away.

Now, after reading about this thing and trying to digest the abundant (yet oddly vague) information about it I came up with some very quick conclusions.

Number 1: OS X. WTF? Ok.. ok.. you need to get this thing out there, no need to write a whole new platform for it, but why call this thing a phone? Why not just call it a mini-tablet PC with a built in phone?

Number 2: A touchscreen. There are already touchscreen based phones. They are called PDAs with built in phones? These have been out for about 5 years both for the Pocket PC and Palm based platforms... and people have been complaining that they don't want a touchscreen on their phone for 5 years. This is one of the reasons current smartphones are hard to find with a no shit touchscreen (that and the fact that windows mobile 5 for smartphones was designed so it wouldn't need a touchscreen to save costs on the hardware.) This interface is pushed even further by the use of gestures for the iPhone instead of the tried and true pointing and tapping.

Number 3: Support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi, and IMAP push from Yahoo to get your emails. Gee this sure sounds like more than a phone to me.. and doesn't Cisco already own the trademark for the iPhone they released 2 months ago?

THIS THING ISN'T A DAMNED PHONE, IT'S A PDA RUNNING OSX!

This is where the ranting begins. The world is seeming to go apeshit over this thing and its not even out yet. Everyone is amazed at the functionality that is built into this device (and they should be). What gets me is that all the news agencies and the world in general seems to be slobbering at Steve Jobs feet for thinking of putting all these things into one package.
Holy shit people. The pocket PC with integrated phone has been around forever. It does everything the iPhone does and more, its also been doing it for a very long time. The palm PDA phone has been around even longer! Look at the current generation. The Treo is a great device. What does it do you ask? Well, it plays your MP3s, it surfs the internet, it lets you read your email, it has bluetooth 2.o, it has a camera.. wow, doesn't that sound like the iPhone?

My anger isn't with the device, it isn't with apple, its with all the fan boys who are proclaiming a new age of enlightenment because Apple has released their own version of the same shit that has been around for years. I understand that the phone is a nice step forward. I understand that it is very appealing to alot of rational consumers and I also understand that it looks very pretty. What I don't understand is how people can ignore the last decade of development or the fact that the iPhone is entering a crowded market.
I know most people are looking at this thing with a sane and rational view but it seems to me that most of the people on the soap boxes have completely lost it.
I don't hate apple (contrary to popular belief) but I am starting to hate the cult following it is cultivating and the way people are putting on blinders to everything not made by Apple Inc.

To hopefully dissuade some of those out there looking to tear apart my argument, remember that this was a rant. I know the iPhone clearly not a smartphone. It isn't designed to be one. True to Apple's tradition of keeping things over simplified so that they don't scare technophobes off they have created a device that is also true to the world wide trend of ever increasing functionality in phones. Kudos to apple for once again answering the call of the consumer. I thing the iPhone will become a fairly common sight. I am just afraid it will be because of sheer popularity and not on actual merit. Maybe that is because I am just used to being let down by Microsoft products.

I'm going to stop here. My post is becoming disorganized and hard to read. I will close with these final thoughts.

The iPhone is a pretty interesting platform all things considered. It is a far enough divergence from current smartphones that it probably won't be competing for the same market. It has alot of things integrated in it, many of which I desire, some that I don't. The screen looks great, it has a large storage capacity, and I'm willing to bet the sound quality is pretty good for voice calls. I won't be getting one. I can do the same thing for cheaper using a non-apple product like the Motorola Q or the Treo 700 series (take your pick, palm or windows based).