the iPhone hype is starting to get to me. :-) i had pretty much decided i’d get one, but likely not until the Autumn, once they’ve had a chance to work out some of the inevitable kinks. but these reviews from mossberg & levy et al are soooooo happy shiny, that it’s breaking down my resolve.

but i’m pretty sure i’ll still wait, and here’s why: the 2 year contract. as the world is now, the folks who are in line now to buy a contract-subsidized $499/$599 phone will have contracts that won’t expire until June 2009. which makes them early adopters now, but not so much for next generation. maybe that’s okay – maybe this tech will be so incredible it’ll last. and, probably, a year from now they’ll be able to sign up for another 2 year contract to get a new subsidy for v2 or v3.

it just seems like there’s so much in flux, so much that we’re all learning about what mobile hardware & software can do, that there’s going to be a bunch of advances quickly. just take the physical layout, for example: i suspect that practical day-to-day use of the iPhone is going to drive putting 1 or 2 indicator LEDs on the hardware to indicate new e-mail or phone messages. maybe a physical button to get to a commonly used function quickly (here’s one: the phone!). the software/OS bits seem much easier to me, but i suspect there will be some things there that will need new revs.

so it feels like what can/should happen is a secondary market for iPhones – that is, when v1.1 or v2 or v3 comes out, there should be a way that you can transfer your phone & contract to someone else and get the new shiny. without SIM cards (that are accessible, anyway), this is a lot harder to do than it would be otherwise (and that would be a nice hardware modification for future versions, too!).

anyway, like everything else with the iPhone, who knows. it’s a great step, obviously, and is going to be really attractive to me every time i walk by the increasingly ubiquitous Apple stores. but hopefully i’ll be able to wait a bit and see how things play out.