Screw The Mortgage Payment - Get An iPhone!

Apple knows how to make people lust after their products. They did it with the iMac, the iPod, and now comes the iPhone. I think it has to do with the "i". After all, Apple changed the name of the iTV to Apple TV at the last minute, and guess what, its sales have been somewhat less than stellar. But that won't be the case for the iPhone - people are already lining up to pay far out the ass for this little beauty.

And pay you will - the low end model costs $500, with the top of the line ringing in at a cool $600. Hmm, sounds like the same pricing structure for another much hyped piece of electronic gear. But the costs don't stop there - Apple finally released the rate plans for the phone, and the cheapest will cost you $60 bucks a month. It's $100 for the top drawer plan. Plus, AT&T is tacking on a $36 activation fee, just cause they can. And that's with a 2-year contract. For those kinds of prices, this had better be one sexy beast.

If there's one bright spot about buying an iPhone, it's that you don't have to stick around the store for an hour while the clerk activates the damn thing. Instead, just take it home, load up iTunes, and you can activate it online - pretty slick. That being said, I think most people buy their phones online these days, so activation really isn't that much of a hassle for the average joe.

So what do you do once you get your grubby little paws on the iPhone this Friday? Why, you sell it on eBay, of course. Or, if you're one of those insecure types that wants the phone to impress your friends and to compensate for your teeny weeny, you can do just about anything with it - send text messages and emails, surf the web, get directions, listen to music. Honestly, that's a pretty good feature list. I wonder if this thing makes phone calls...

There's no doubt that the iPhone is going to be the hot gadget of the year, but with the high cost of ownership and the exclusive deal with AT&T, I have to wonder just how many people will actually nut up and max out their platinum card for this puppy. You know, besides celebrities.