The iPhone -- arguably the single best invention of the 20th century, and certainly the greatest cell phone advancement....ever. But while Apple's iPhone continues to recieve high phrases in both innovation, and design... It continues to draw debates on where it succeeded and where it completely failed.

Failed? Impossible... but is it? Many of you out there will literately fist-fight your reasons in this false belief that the iPhone is the pefect phone... well it isn't; and lets explore why....

We can start with its beginning.... with the iPod. Another truly astonishingly simple product that provided music lovers with an alternative to clunking around CD's, and aggravation of burning your favorite mixed-cd's... Apple provided iTunes, the affordable way of downloading music straight into your iPod and bingo-bongo.... instant music on the go. What Apple decided a few years later is to incorporate that stylistic intelligence, it to the cellular phone arena, and produce one of the hottest crazes of the decade... the iPhone.

What I find so unique about this transformation is its audience. Originally the audience was the anti-Bill Gates legion who was against the majoirty, and all for simplicity. Now we find that its audience is no longer the minority... it is now what it was raging against... the popularity craze. I don't need to get into the lines and shortages for all things iPhone, but what I can't seem to understand is that other phones have come and gone that systematically beats the iPhone in specs, yet iPhone mania has already consumed its global audience and in essence captured the cellular phone market. The iPhone lacks video, and video messaging, it lacks picture messaging that is non-internet based which happens to be the majoirty of the cellular world. It lacks a semi-decent camera (only 1.3 mp), it lacks a camera that is front facing for video confrencing (as promised by apple), it is one of the only phones to feature a glass front faceplate, ideal for those of us who are rough on our phones. While the 3G jump was important, we are still talking about an AT&T phone before modding it and possibly bricking it, trying to get it to another phone carrier. Ringtones have to be purchased, and if savvy enough to find ways of sneaking ringtones via bluetooth or free-ringtone uploader websites, you must remember that its in thee highly UNPOPULAR MP4 format. And to put an cherry to the ice cream, the phone must be taken in and shipped out to have it battery replaced... with a current price of 85$ before shipping, it will set you back nearly 50% of the phone's entire worth to get the battery replaced... so those of you who own one remember...just don't.