Out of the Newsroom

Most everyone who knows me knows that I actually stood in line last July to score one of the first iPhones that was sold in Connecticut. And most folks know that I have been a pretty big fan of the iPhone and recommended it to anyone who asked, much as I have recommended buying a Mac to anyone who asked me about buying a computer.

Not that I have anything against Windows. I am not a hater of Bill Gates or Microsoft, and I use a Windows machine on my job all day long. I don’t think I am so into Apple that I can’t speak the name of Steve Jobs without swooning, though I do believe he is a pretty smart guy. (And I have to believe that he reads the blog of “Fake Steve Jobs” and laughs his ass off.)

That all said, when the aforementioned Mr. Jobs unveiled the next generation iPhone today in California, I wasn’t filled with an instant and overwhelming sensation known to all men since they were teenage boys. No, not THAT sensation, but the feeling of “I have got to have me one of those.” (Come to think of it, that is THAT sensation. Momentary loss of mental function there. Sorry.)

Don’t get me wrong, its not that I think the new iPhone 3G is somehow unworthy of my hard earned dollars. It isn’t that I wouldn’t enjoy faster web surfing, email and messaging, because I would. It’s not that the extra 10 bucks a month for the faster data service called 3G is too much money. It’s not even that AT&T wants me to sign up for two more years to keep the price at $199–or $299 for the model with more memory.

You might think its because that I have decided that I don’t NEED a new iPhone. Well, what the hell does that have to do with anything? I didn’t NEED the first one. I don’t NEED about half of the things I want. I mean, I don’t need a BMW roadster–it doesn’t mean I don’t want one.

To clarify, I want a BMW roadster. But I can’t afford one. I want a new iPhone. That, I can afford. Sort of.

But the fact is that I am undecided on whether I will be getting the latest and greatest from Apple. Why? Well as stupid as it sounds, I am exceptionally disappointed in Apple and AT&T’s apparent decision to make purchasers of the new iPhone get their phone activated in store, rather than the elegant process that allow purchasers of the original iPhone to turn on and set them up right at home, over the internet.

To be fair, I get why this change was wanted by AT&T–they want to cut out the “black market” for phones that go unactivated or worse yet, get “jailbreaked”, meaning they are programmed to work with phone networks other than AT&T. (This was a much bigger issue in Europe and Asia, where there are many competing networks sharing the same technical standard that the iPhone works on. Here in the US, that would only be T-Mobile.)

But it’s just the idea. Here was this elegant way I could take my phone home and pick my plan and get my new phone number without dealing with the sometimes friendly (sometimes not) staff at the local phone store. And now its gone. I think there were other ways to save this, but now that AT&T (and other wireless operators around the world) are allowed to subsidize part of the iPhone’s cost–which is why it will be significantly less than the original was when it launched a little more than a year ago–then the self activation plan was probably doomed.

Of course, this could all be just a huge bit of rationalizing on my part to prevent dealing with the Chief Financial Officer of my house when she asks me “Why do you need a new iPhone?”

And then my answer will be, “Need? What does that have to do anything? Seriously.”