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I love Apple. I like the products they do. This thingy is written on my olde iBook 700 MHz PowerPC G3. When the rumours of Apple getting into the mobile phone business started surfacing a few months ago I was excited. And it didn’t seem that far fetched either, having a sound base to build from, the iPod. So it was with great anticipation that I watched through the Keynote presentation where the aptly named iPhone (where do they come up with these brilliant names?!) was revealed to the world.

At first I was extatic, as I usually am having watched one of Steve Jobs‘s presentations (the man is an evil genious out to take over the world, clearly!). I was ready, willing but fortunately not able to buy everything in Apple’s product line. Having pondered for a while to get an iPod, I now thought I would pass on that and wait for the iPhone instead – getting everthing packed into one single package. And come on, the phone is just so cool!

Having now let it sink in for a few days, I have managed to calm myself down. And I see some problems on the horizon. First of all, the price. What was it – 499 USD with a two year contract? That would put it at about 800-900 EUR without a binding contract?

The smartphone business, as it is doesn’t have a lot to do with how good a certain phone is or is not – it’s all about getting good deals with the service providers. Sadly, I don’t forsee the finnish telecom companies warming up to Apple. They seem pretty stuck in Nokia/SonyEricsson-mode. And having tons of innovations and techinques in a phone is no good to anybody if the service provider doesn’t support them, and why would they, if only one phone from one (new to the industry) company can provide them?

The touch-screen also worries me a bit. I know it was precisely that which first broke down on my Palm handheld computer. I bet getting an Apple mobile phone fixed in this country would be a bit harder than getting a Nokia/SonyEricsson-smartphone to a certified fixer-upper. The large touch-sensitive widescreen would demand a high-quality protective case.

Also, and this is not critisism against the phone, I don’t need a smartphone. Working in an alarm dispatch, I spend most of my working days on the phone(s), so I don’t use such a thing a lot in my spare time. I need a phone to (1) call (2) send SMS and maybe at the most (3) check my e-mails. There are cheaper phones for that purpose. Living out in the woods out of reach from any 3G (or whatever those new ultra-fast mobile networks are called…) network means a lot of the iPhones capacities would be untapped.

I guess they didn’t design it for me… It’s clearly a gadget I want but don’t need… But it’s OK. I’ll probably stick to my standard mobile phones, and get me one of those iPod nanos… I need to get my fix of Norah Jones and Katie Melua…

Photo from apple.com