What would an internet-centric blog be without at least one post on Apple's new iPhone?  I purposely waited a few days to see what the press would say about the new device.  I take it by now you've read about it?  Or seen it on the news?  Just in case you're out of the loop, have a look at what Apple has to say about it's newest toy and then come back.  It's OK.  I'll wait.

The press has been falling over itself to hype this phone up.  And with good reason.  It's a pretty cool looking device.  In typical Apple fashion, they've managed to merge media player, phone, and multi-purpose mobile device into one innovative, elegant package.  The photos alone could sell this thing.  You wouldn't need to know that it plays your music and movies, calls your friends, runs Mac OS X, has a 6 or 8 gigabyte hard drive, and browses the web with Safari.

Until you saw the price, that is.

To own this all-in-one piece of technology, consumers will need to fork over between $500 and $600.  Even for a PDA, that's a lot of money.  And the iPhone isn't really being marketed as a PDA.  The Kelsey Group says there should be "a healthy demand" for the iPhone.  I'm not so sure there will be.  It's true that there will be a lot of talk about it.  It's true that there will be people drooling all over themselves to get one.  But I'm not sure the average Joe consumer is going to throw down the needed cash to actually own one of these bad boys.

Greg Sterling says the iPhone is "a game changer".  Again, I don't think it will be just yet.  And again, it goes back to the price.  Until a cheaper version with more features comes out, the masses aren't going to spend the money on this phone.  It has the potential to really shake things up.  And I'm sure it's already got the other mobile phone makers scrambling over their drawing boards.  But until price points come down, the iPhone will find itself on the top shelf of oooo-ahhh technology that everybody wants… but no one can afford.

For a product to be a success, it has to be adopted.  They'll probably sell a fair amount of these.  But enough to consider it "a game changer"?  Not yet.  Not with this first version.  I just don't see a $600 phone turning into a wide-adoption product.