Many people were asking me, when iPhone will hit here in Qatar or in the Philippines? My casual answer without thinking a bit is maybe next year, hehehe. Honestly, I have no idea, and I think it will take longer time as it requires an Apple account in iTunes and authorized carrier like AT&T for you to activate and use it.

iPhone will hit the US market today and I’m sure all the iHype will be answered today. Although some lucky human in this earth got it first. My favorite iPhone pre-launch review is by David Pogue of NYT, his video presentation is also hillarious and must to see. Personally, without the real reviews of other real users, I don’t think I will go with the iPhone wagon as early as this year assuming Apple Store is available here in Qatar/Philippines and local carrier here starts offering iPhone - as history shows I able to wait until 5th generation of iPod video, and 2nd generation of shuffle before buying iPods. Most probably I’ll buy first Mac Book Pro before buying iPhone, hehehe.

Some factors I’m considering right now:

Touch Screen
With only one button and all touch screen keypad, I’m sure Apple will still require some modifications in user interface before they will make it as seamless as we want to be. One of the factors why we need to wait for next generation of iPhone.

MMS and SMS
Philippines - considered as SMS capital of the world will surely requires big adaption in the new user interface of touch screen key pad. I saw the demo of David Pogue, and surely text messaging will be a big challenge. In the Philippines I know many people doing SMS without looking the phone at all, I don’t think you can do it in iPhone as there is no keypad that you can touch and feel.

MMS is confirmed not available in iPhone - another big let go as there are still pressing reasons why we really want to send multimedia files to other cellphone (not to email).

iPhone as iPod
One of the advertised functionalities of iPhone is as the best iPod ever. I saw different presentations and it really looks cool. Having 3.5” wide-screen and touch screen to control your music, videos and pictures – I was really waiting for this ultimate iPod. The only thing I need in iPhone is more space, 8GB is not enough for my video, audio, and image files on the go.

iPhone as Internet Device
Initial reviews looks good to me specially the Google Maps, Google and Yahoo search and mail built-in, good speed in Wi-fi connectivity while surfing the web, and the quick and responsiveness of OS X . But hearing the limitations in Flash and Java contents, I think next generations of iPhone will solve these minor gaps. Yes, let's wait for the next generation.

Also I need enterprise strong native support in communication like in Exchange or in Lotus Notes to push/pull information from my corporate account. I want to hear more about corporate communication support before I can really convince myself and our managers buying iPhone.

I also want to hear some feedbacks how iPhone can sync to my calendars and todos.

iPhone as Phone
Finally, quoting David Pogue: ”it lacks features found even on the most basic phones”; Pogue also described the six long steps how to make a call, “wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name”, wew! Only 2 megapixel camera, with no video support, no 3G support yet - but I heard that Apple can easily enable 3G thru software upgrade if they want to as the chip they are using is already 3G capable, they just disabled it because of battery issues.

So, are you now doubting iPhone as a phone? Ok, how about with those tempting bigger touch screen and longer battey life, can we just use this iPhone as iPod for watching video and listening to music instead? Yes and No - as of this moment, still you need 2 year AT&T voice-plus-internet plan – so even as iPod, you cannot use it here in Qatar and in the Philippines; while in US, yes but you need that 2 years subscription to AT&T.

True enough, iPhone is a revolutionary phone, no other phone have these all features, functionalities and most especially buzz.

I’m looking forward to the time I can use this kind of smart phone (not necessarily from Apple) – not now but in the right time and future generations release.