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For those who have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the iPhone, wait no longer (unless you're out on the sidewalk camped out waiting for the store to open). It's here! Well, almost. And here's our commentary on the matter.

What do you get for a whopping $599 plus $100/month or so on one of the slowest data networks in the US?

A black phone that looks neat (like the iPod when it was introduced) and that has some whizbang internal gyro sensor that can sense portrait and landscape modes. Oh, yeah.. and entrance into the gates of Jobs' ego-world. You have bragging rights. Hey, it's your money after all.

Now, here's the $64,000 question. Do you really want to watch YouTube videos on a slower-than-molasses network? Probably not. What else is there, really? iPod + phone. You probably already have both. So, what they are in essence doing is merging the two together. But, if you already have an MP3 phone, you have an iPhone. It just doesn't look as cool, right?

It's a funny thing to watch this media frenzy over such a device. Granted, the iPod really did change how things work. But that's mostly a consumer-Apple relationship (you buy an iPod, you rip your music at home, you upload (or buy from iTunes)). Now that a carrier (in this case, AT&T) is put in the mix, things change quite a bit. The carrier is the intermediary in this relationship and that's not so good. Carriers have historically been the beast bullying the consumer around while taking their money. In return, the consumer had little control over what they got. Dropped calls. Spotty service. Regardless, you pay everymonth. And the carriers love it.

With Apple changing the rules of the hardware vendor/carrier relationship, this signals Apple's dependance on its iPod success to dictate terms. Exclusive rights to one carrier? Boo. No hardware subsidies? Boo.

Who will get the iPhone? Those early adopters (but they're not the norm, so we won't count them) and the Apple fanatics. Will the iPhone get the same traction as the iPod? No. Mainly because of the up-front consumer expense and limited carrier choice. Apple boxed themselves in a corner to rot on this deal.

If and only if the hackers figure out the way to hack an unlock so that at least consumers can have some choice to go to T-Mobile (but who would?) can Apple gain some traction. What happens when iPhone Nano appears on the market? Will the original iPhone continue to sell, albeit at a displaced number due to the launch of a new sibling? Will we see those silly MAC/PC commercials making fun of all mobile phones?

Does the world need another whiz-bang phone? Not really. We just need a phone that doesn't crash that delivers on the carriers' promises of "no dropped calls" and "reliable service" so that we don't always ask "can you hear me?". Since it's running on an "Apple OS", we may just solve part of the problem inherent with mobile communications.