Final thoughts

While the wait may have been long and trying—and I do think Apple should have been better prepared to handle the onslaught of iTunes activations—I can say it seems to have ultimately been worth the effort. After just a few hours of use, I have to tell you that the iPhone 3G packs quite a punch, both in its design and in the 3G and GPS capabilities. Combined with the new features available to all iPhone owners, it is a generational leap forward that raises the bar for what a mobile device can be.

Yes, there are a couple of legitimate complaints about the iPhone not yet addressed: The battery is not removable, the onscreen keyboard is too narrow, you can't expand the memory, the camera is only 2 megapixels and there's no flash or video support. But I suspect it won't be long before Apple or some third-party developer comes along to fix that. For most users, this is the "it" device, and rightly so. It offers up the features most people want and manages to do so in an innovative way that makes you feel like you're holding a piece of technology from the future. Despite being exhausted from waking up before 5 a.m. Friday, standing in line for hours and then waiting even longer for iTunes, I'm happy to have my iPhone 3G.

Ryan Faas is a frequent Computerworld contributor specializing in Mac and multiplatform network issues. You can find more information about him at RyanFaas.com.