iPhone... iDunCare

Normally I'm all about the new technology and the things on the horizon, but in a lot of cases I'm also very cautious. Enter the iPhone. Rumors about it have been around for a great long while, but honestly is this 3-way convergence device really going to be the next best thing or just a quirky product? A little of both would be my guess.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070109-8583.html

ArsTechica had a fairly good review of the device. For me however I view the attempts at creating a sexy-new-media-savvy phone a little mixed. My view has often been that convergence devices fall into two categories, consumer and business models. The iPhone looks like a great blend of features for the upper level consumer but in many ways I can see the limited input options as being a hindrance to its adoption in the business side of the house. While some press coverage such as ZDNet's has touted the iPhone as a death knell for companies like MS and RIM, I think that view is exaggerated. Until Apple forges stronger alliances and provides business users the ability to really connect to the home office the product will likely not appeal to the larger corporations out there who are very tied to their MS Exchange/RIM connectivity.

Keep in mind I think there's a lot of good that could come of the iPhone. For younger business users this will be the penetration product of '07. As younger tech-savvy users embrace the iPhone, the expectation will be for their corporate side to follow suit. While the change won't happen overnight, it definitely gives Apple an inroad to big-business that it probably lacked.

I'll hold my real judgment until the 2nd generation of iPhone is released and people have had a chance to do more "Rugged" testing. Let's face it if the face of the pretty iPhone gets scratched up.. is it really still cool to have?