The iPhone however doesn't have to take any existing applications and user base into consideration. Consumers don't usually buy their phone for what software or features come with it or how well it functions, they buy it because it looks nice or is cheap (or free) and they really don't need anything more than a device that makes or receives calls. Apple moves beyond the fashion statement (though it is a strong point for this phone) and tries to change the paradigm. Instead of choosing a carrier and then getting to the store and picking from their selection of phones, you chose the phone first, with its feature set, and get the carrier that comes with it.

I got home and proceeded to remove the iPhone from its box. I had already downloaded and updated the iTunes software on my Macbook to the new 7.3 version that is required for the iPhone. I go through the activation process, and since I'm an existing AT&T subscriber, I punch in my current phone number and I'm off and running. The entire activation process from start to end took me about 5 minutes, and another two minutes for the phone to receive its activation codes from the cellular networks. It doesn't take long for me to make my first call.

The call quality for the first few phone calls was good, though I was in my empty house with no one else home and nothing going on in the background. I haven't had a chance to use it in a really noisy environment yet. There are no problems with signal strength " it gets the same five bars in my house that my Samsung D807 got.

All the ads you've seen are exactly how the user interface works. Everything is animated and moves around fluidly. It still feels like I'm not using a computer, it is almost organic. I attribute the user experience to Core Animation, one of the foundation technologies for OS X (it will be included in OS X 10.5 Leopard).

There are lots of settings to go through, it was almost overwhelming actually WiFi (which detected my WPA security and asked for my password), voicemail you have to setup an entirely new mailbox since the visual voicemail isn't compatible with the traditional cell phone voicemail boxes AT&T provides. Setting up things like weather, mail accounts and contacts can take a while.

The internet browser works fairly well over WiFi. I didn't really have any problems learning how to navigate around the miniature interface. The most effective way I've found to move around is to tap for clicking on a link, tap and hold to pan around and pinch or pull (two-fingered gestures) to zoom in and out. Pages are slower to load, but I didn't find it unbearable or unreasonable.

Edge however is the biggest sore point with the phone. Much of this is related to the fact that I'm only getting about 50-60kbit/s. If it was 150-200kbit/s it wouldn't be an issue.

The iPod experience was great, as this is the first widescreen video iPod. Moving through cover flow was attractive and the ability to watch widescreen movies is fantastic. There were occasionally loading delays on cover flow, but for the most part the animation was smooth.

Watching movies was great; you'd think it would be painful to watch a movie on such a small screen but the high resolution display makes up for the fact that the screen is only 3.5" diagonal.

Overall Initial Impression

When the iPhone ads started to play on television at the beginning of June, everyone I know was enthralled. Until they heard it was $500-600. Even my grandma wanted one until she found out the price.

Until the prices comes down a few hundred dollars, they'll dominate the high end, which is a win for both Apple and AT&T, since Apple brings the high end customers (who spend the most) to the carrier's service, increasing AT&T's revenue.

Of course, it's possible that Apple doesn't want to lower the price, they'll be happy with huge margins (perhaps up to 40 or 50% of the price of the iPhone), and sell fewer units rather than make tons of cheap units with a smaller margin.

I'm pretty satisfied with my phone so far. I've had a few problems, mostly with the speed of the Edge network. It might take a while (more than 24 hours definitely) for me to feel comfortable that I spent $600 on it because I didn't use my iPod heavily prior to buying the iPhone, so I don't feel like I got a great iPod and a really nice cell phone.