So the iPhone is out now. I think I made it two days before I was sick of hearing about it. Its a really cool gadget and all that, Apple has always done a great job with their products so I’m sure its a good phone too. The amount of attention that its getting is mind boggling. I don’t think I’ve seen any actual Apple advertisements for it yet, I suppose they don’t need to with all the news stories about the iPhone. Its difficult to not hear all about it over and over without Apple adding to the noise.

I’ve had the Palm Treo phone for a couple of years now, and everyone seems to assume I’ll be rushing to get an iPhone. Not a chance, I have the Palm phone because it was on sale when I got it; I only paid $100 for it. Which is more than I feel a phone is worth. Most plans give one to you for $50 or less, so anything more than that seems excessive. Stepping up to $500 or $600 is way beyond what I’d be willing to pay.

It seems like most of the people getting the iPhone don’t really have a reason. Like the iPod, its the new trendy thing to have. Its a lot like this Penny Arcade comic. Its obvious these are people with more money than sense since they are hiring people to stand in line for them. After all, the Apple website will let you order them online; and I’m sure you could do pre-orders somewhere.

Lets assume that I wanted to do more than my current Palm phone is capable of. I think I would go with a Windows mobile phone instead. I’m not a fan of Microsoft products, which is why I have the Palm phone at the moment. It seems like the Palm OS is starting to fade away, theres a lot less being done with it compared to the Windows platform. As a geek I feel the need to be able to tinker with my gadgets; so having a platform that allows me to add and change what it can do is important, even if I never actually make any changes. Thats a concern I would have with the iPhone, how open will it be? The Windows platform is flexible enough that you can get it to mimic the iPhone interface.

Windows phones seem to have all the features that the iPhone has. Including a media center, so you can play music and movies on it. The big difference is that Windows phones don’t come with a large hard drive, you need to buy memory sticks to hold the media. Even with the additional memory sticks, the price is less than the iPhone.

My main interest in the opening week of iPhone sales was to see how high the Ebay auctions got. I figured this would go a lot like new game consoles, the stores would sell out quickly and people will be paying exorbitant prices to get one through Ebay. So far it seems like Apple went out of its way to have enough in stores, the auctions haven’t gotten much above the store prices yet.

I’m sure it will only take a few weeks for the iPhone to be as popular and widely used as the iPod is. No doubt that it will also get a vast array if questionable accessories, like the iPod has.