I own 2 iPhone 3G's, so I'm obviously not a hater (for that matter, neither was the original poster - he indicated that in spite of the compaints, he intended to get one)...

That said, many of the OP's comments are completely valid, and the responses (for the most part) less so.

The cost issue (possibly aside from mobile.me) isn't one of them - the iPhone data service costs aren't really out of line with other (unlimited) data plans.

However, the GPS issue is completely valid - I have a device that can host a fully functional GPS app (and their are developers willing to create one) but Apple won't allow it. Whether it is for their own reasons or because their agreement with ATT (or Google) doesn't allow it is not germane. The responses that the Google maps functionality is good enough or that you don't really need a GPS app on your phone so be thankful for whatever you get are bogus. I don't expect to get it for free, but given that the phone hardware is as (or more) powerful than most dedicated GPS units, it is silly to argue that it shouldn't be allowed to be one.

The tethering issue doesn't affect me, and I'm sure is an ATT issue rather than something that Apple cares about. However, arguing that you can get around it by jailbreaking your phone is not a reasonable response.

The lack of cut and paste is a major issue - and becomes more and more so as you use more apps that can't pass info (like URLs, street addresses, phone numbers, etc.) easily between themselves. A app that supports C&P purely within itself is nice but not that useful - C&P with a shared clipboard should be part of the basic text widget. I assume that Apple could do this but hasn't because their human factors people haven't come up with a touch screen approach to C&P that they like, but something OK but usable now is better than something great that never arrives.

The camera isn't that important to me, but arguing that you should carry a separate camera is not a particularly good response. Sure, a dedicated camera will always be better, but the point is that you always have your phone with you, and a camera you have with you is much more useful than one you don't. I don't expect a great camera, but having one that is as good as the competition seems not unreasonable. (And the response that you can record video if you jailbreak your phone is again silly - you shouldn't have to jailbreak your phone (with the attendant risks to the phone and to other apps) just to get functionality that apparently can be otherwise easily added by Apple.

The responses about the lack of A2DP (stereo bluetooth support) are completely ridiculous - this device is sold by Apple as an iPod and so should support music devices, including wireless headphones. Why it supports only hands-free and wireless headset profiles, but not the whole set of profiles that would be useful is unclear - there are claims that the hardware should support all the useful profiles, but that the software stack was crippled at the carrier's request or to avoid cannibalizing mobile.me or some such. However, while those arguments could apply to some of the profiles, they shouldn't apply to A2DP...

Most of the grab bag comments (#7) have some merit. The most recent responder's replies are silly.

Saying in response to the fact that Apple won't allow Flash on the phone that "well, you can read PDF files, and that is Adobe" doesn't address the lack of Flash. Without Flash support, huge numbers of web sites are inaccessible, or you are limited to crippled versions of those sites. One of the reasons I got this phone was to get away from WAP and similar bogosities.

While I don't use MMS, arguing that email with photo attachments is the same as MMS is obviously untrue - aside from being more complex, many people/phones who can receive MMS messages cannot handle mobile email.

Arguing that the presence of external voice dialer apps replace the need for native voice dialing is similarly ridiculous. I've used these apps, and the level of complexity (number of needed manual steps) make them useless - I want to use voice dialing when I can't use my hands/eyes to do "normal" dialing, especially from a hands-free, so an app that requires 6 or 8 button presses (and watching the screen) is a lab demonstration of capabilities, not a useful production mechanism.

I believe that comment about mobile TV is referring to the fact that ATT doesn't support the iPhone with their Mobile TV (CV) service, though they do on all their other 3G phones. Not too important to me, but a valid issue, I think.

The lack of a user replaceable battery hasn't been an issue to me yet, but it will be, and responding that you can potentially disassemble your phone to do this isn't an adequate answer. I understand _why_ it wasn't designed to be user replaceable, but that doesn't affect the fact that it isn't, and replacing the battery becomes a fairly major undertaking.

The presence of 16 GB of built-in flash doesn't completely address the lack of removable flash. This is a portable media device - that includes things like movies that take enormous amounts of space. Being able to store movies, etc. on external flash cards would be useful. Beyond that, copying large media files to the device is a lot slower than copying them to flash cards directly using a flash reader/writer on a computer, again making support for external flash cards desirable. I understand (at least some of) Apple's reasons to not support external cards (though arguably some of those reasons are less valid on the iPhone) but that doesn't make the issue go away.

WRT the request for an updated list of complaints - I actually have my own (fairly long) list that included most of those from the OP, plus: poor battery life, especially with WiFi and 3G enabled (which I do all the time - why else get a network-centric phone), lack of Java support (like the lack of Flash, closes out access to many web sites), inability to use folders or other ways to organize apps (yes, can be resolved if you jailbreak - I've already commented on my views on that), inability to have both Exchange and "private" contact lists and calendars unless you use mobile.me, and especially for a phone (and coming from a hard-buttoned flip phone) the number of steps (and amount of attention) needed to make a call, particularly to someone who would on the hard-buttoned phone be a speed dial (single button push).

All that said - I think it is a great device. I think with some (software) enhancements (and changes to Apple's rules for 3rd party developers), it could be a _greater_ device...