The iPhone and all that jazz

Are you ready for the iPhone launch? Check out the cost associated with owning an iPhone. And here is a hilarious document that AT&T is circulating.

Can’t wait to get your hands on one? For $100 to $300, you can pay someone to stand in line for you outside a local Apple or AT&T retail store.

The reviews raise some expected complaints. Surfing the Web on AT&T's Edge network is sloooooow, and its cell phone service is unreliable. (Pogue: "If Verizon's slogan is, "Can you hear me now?" AT&T's should be, "I'm losing you.") USA Today's Edward Baig, attempting to demonstrate the iPhone live on CNBC, couldn't get Internet access. The iPhone is also missing some features, such as voice dialing and voice recognition. And although it has a built-in camera, you can't send pictures to other cell phones. (You can send it via e-mail, but only if the other cell phone can receive e-mail and photo attachments.)

Market challenges you ask?

Further, the phone's starting price tag of $499 is also a deterrent, especially considering the features that consumers typically look for in cell phone. In fact, only 1 percent, or 2.6 million of mobile phone subscribers said their next cell would have to have e-mail access, Internet, and the ability to play music and video, according to a survey conducted last year by Forrester Research Inc.

Another potential hindrance is Apple's exclusive carrier agreement with AT&T. In order to get the phone, customers who use other service providers will have to either shell out money to break a contract or pay for more than one contract. In a survey of 465 people conducted by IDC, 60 percent of respondents said they were interested in the iPhone but were not likely to buy one in the near future because of its price tag and the costs associated with switching carriers.

And while the iPhone is expected to be popular in the consumer market, it faces serious challenges in the corporate world - at least initially.For security purposes, companies have so far been hesitant to outfit the phone with the software that allows other devices like the BlackBerry and Treo to sync with corporate e-mail systems. Apple is expected at some point to release a business version of the iPhone, but it's not clear when that would be available.

There are always other options.

If you're ready to spend at least $500 for a cell phone, what else should you consider? In the $500 to $800 price range is the Prada-branded cell phone from LG and the HTC Touch; both also feature a touch screen. German says the Nokia N95 is a "really powerful smart phone" with a 5-megapixel built-in camera (the iPhone's camera is 2 megapixels); it also has a music player, e-mail capabilities and "other productivity applications." And if what you want is a phone that does double-duty as an mp3 player, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia all have phones that fit the bill.

I would rather wait for the second generation phone, when the bugs are resolved, the competitors have launched their versions, and the prices have been slashed.