I will iPhone

We're just a couple of days away from what the media are frequently reminding us is one of the most anticipated personal electronics launches in history, the release of the Apple iPhone. From the very product announcement, I was certain that I would own one, someday. But I've relaxed my tendency to live on the bleeding edge. I will wait, I thought, until my current cell phone contract runs out, about a year hence. By then, there will probably be a new version with more features and even more whiz-bang.

Then I watched this video and decided I needed one sooner. Much sooner. With any luck, I'll own an iPhone by summer's end and will tithe the penalty to be released from my current contract with pleasure.

Here's the thing: I'm not unhappy with my current phone. In fact, the Treo 650 I've been toting is probably the best I've ever owned. It permitted me to give away my Palm organizer, stop fretting about toting a camera everywhere I went, gives me a great sounding phone experience on a broad Sprint network and serves as a perfectly acceptable—considering its limitations—web and e-mail device.

And it looks antique next to the iPhone. Which will, oh yes, be mine.

That's because it's that last bit of feature I've come to rely on the most: access to e-mail and, especially, the web. And that's what all of the reviews to date (1, 2, 3) say the iPhone does best.

I can't get away from the phone; I'm in the professional communications business after all. But even sitting at my desk, even spending a few hours a day on the phone, I spend much more time in the web browser and pushing e-mail around. It has changed the way my business works and drastically reduced the number of people I actually have to speak with daily. If you took the phone off my desk tomorrow, I'd adjust and hardly miss a beat. I can't do my job these days without Eudora or Firefox.

So what I need most when I'm out and about (and not schlepping a lightweight laptop) is a great e-mail machine, a web browser, my calendar and contacts and a phone—in that order. That's what the iPhone appears to be. If I can use it to update the websites I administer, dash off e-mail replies to media queries, do modest research while I'm stuck at an airport gate (and, more than occasionally, consult the IMDb to settle a bar bet), manage my schedule and even from time to time call my mom, then it's exactly what I need.

The web is my backup brain (with apologies to Tom and Dori) and I can't wait for the iPhone to help me make a synaptic connection.

Can't. Wait.

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