Oh well .....

.... There is absolutely no way I'm spending £300 on a phone only to have the experience ruined by O2's nOtwork! You can't take it away from O2, they've got the marketing dead right. Pity then that they didn't spend their income where they needed to - like their ailing 2G and non-existent 3G networks.

Unless the iPhone arrives on another carrier this will be one Apple "Fanboy" who'll be giving the handset a massive swerve!

Paul's wrong way

At last ... a bit of common sense!

The rants of people declaiming the iPhone (and who have probably never seen one let alone used one) are revealing of nothing save their own conflicts.

I like the look of the iPhone. If the price is right (unlikely), the carrier right (possible) and the features right (for me)(possible), I'll get one.

I love using Macs because they're right for me. I have no illusions about Apple ... they're a big company who want my money and don't care too much about how they get it. If they do what is usual and swap the £ sign for the $ sign I hope someone has the balls and the money to take them to the EU Court of Whatever for ripping us off.

You're coming at this the wrong way

People make the same mistake with iPod. It's an understandable one, but a mistake nonetheless.

You say existing products do more for less, they just don't have as much style. Well, yeah. But you don't get it. That doesn't matter.

It's like with iPod, everyone goes on about how X competing player has a radio. It's an irrelevance. iPod and iPhone excel at the things which matter to a lot of people nowadays. Style and ease of use.

You can argue until your faces turn blue that the N96 has more features, or that an internet phone with no 3G support is pointless, but it's an irrelevance. You're applying ideas which worked when Windows One came out to a completely different and far more modern situation.

Windows beat Mac OS because it was good enough - it worked for all the things people wanted. Things have changed and what people want has changed. iPhone and iPod offer what people want and that's good enough for them. It's simple. No need to go and look at all these complex competitors with their multitude of useless features (We're talking about standard users, remember).

So yes - iPhone is too pricey, is missing a few features, ought to have better guts - but the fact of the matter is. None of it matters. If it doesn't do what you need, ignore it. Go. Buy a phone that does and leave those who are satisfied with iPhone as is in peace.