Today's blog is dedicated to my friend Gavin.

In his blog today, he writes:

"People are arguing about its features (or lack thereof); others are frothing at the mouth in anticipation so vigorously that they'll probably need to be hosed off before they're let back in the house... (Candidly, I'm probably closer to the second category than the first.) ... I'm ordering the 8GB version."

Now far be it from me to dissuade anyone from parting with their hard-earned cash by buying an Apple product. In fact, holding off on a technology purchase often doesn't make sense to me for other reasons I won't get into now. In fact, I have been accused of going so far as to send out "a fair amount of tauntin'", as Gavin puts it, for those who hold off on making a technology purchase.

So I suppose it will come as a bit of a surprise (and role reversal) for me to say that after some reflection, I am not quite so "frothing at the mouth" over the iPhone.

Yes, the iPhone the best thing that happened to mobile computing technology since they ditched clay tablets for papyrus.

Yes, the iPhone may very well obviate the need to cart a laptop from point A to point B.

Yes, the iPhone is a steal at $500, $600, or $800.

So what's the problem?

The problem is I'm not eager to get into a 2-year contract with Cingular only to have Apple ship an updated version shortly afterward.

Remember the first iPod? The one with the relatively clunky buttons, the relatively low-rez, scratch-attracting screen. The second generation iPod followed only nine months later, and featured the solid-state wheel, more capacity, and improved screen.

Sure, Apple has learned a lot of lessons regarding mobile consumer devices, and the iPhone has nearly no buttons, high-rez, full color (and assuredly) scratch-resistant screen, so what's the problem?

Well, the iPhone is as much software as it is hardware, and let's face it, other than some fancy eye candy, most of the software isn't even written yet. As David Pogue notes: "As I tapped my way into obscure corners of the phone, Mr. Jobs pointed out a couple of spots where only a placeholder graphic was available."

And this is where I think my comparison of the iPhone to the first generation iPod really hits home: Remember the first generation iPod software? Remember iTunes 2.0? The iTunes Music Store didn't exist until version 4.0. You've probably blocked the memory that the only menu options were either related to your music (playlists, artists, songs), or your contacts and settings. That's it. No video, no games, no dock connector, not even on-the-fly playlists.

Now, if you're frothing at the mouth and June 2007 can't come quickly enough, I'll grant you that you're under no risk of making a bad decision by getting one of these-- particularly if you're saddled with some poor excuse for a phone or (horrors!) PDA like atrocity of a "smartphone", particularly those running WinCE (pronounced like it's spelled).

However, I hope you'll grant me the fact that, if an iPhone 2.0 is launched in the 6-8 months after the initial launch (whether this is purely a software or a new rev of the hardware, or both), that the second generation will invariably be a significant improvement over its predecessor, and that's when you'll see me plunking down for a two-year contract on one of these things. But you won't see me putting in a pre-order on one unseen, untouched and untested.