iPhone releasing today...

The much hyped about iPhone is releasing today at 6PM nationwide. People have camped out since yesterday morning outside the Apple store and are using live streaming video technologies like Ustream.tv and Kyte.tv to show the world their perseverance. Bloggers like Robert Scoble along with his son is camped outside the Palo Alto store and is broadcasting his ordeal live here. Zooomr CEO Thomas Hawk and his team is broadcasting it here. There are people camped outside the stores at SFO, NYC and Chicago to be the leaders in the pack to hold an iPhone.
I for one, never really understood what all this hype is about iPhone. I purposefully did not put up a picture of iPhone, which I normally do when I write about a new product. I have nothing against Apple products. I always thought they had an excellent design team and that's about it. I can get the same meat in Apple's product, in most cases more meat in other similar products from other vendors for a price that is usually less than half of what Apple sells its products for. iPod and iShuffle are classic examples. I still do not own one of them and probably never will. The same goes for iPhone also. AT&T and Apple are trying to squeeze out every last bit of curiosity that they could get from those people waiting in line for the iPhones and the million others who are waiting for the next version. $600 with a 2years contract and a phone that does not have a physical keyboard and one that I cannot use with other SIM cards when I travel overseas? Why would anyone in their right mind would want to plunk down so much for such a tightly controlled product. Well, as long as there are those million plus people eagerly waiting for such a product, companies like Apple and AT&T will thrive.
Oh!! By the way, Apple did piss of Stephen Colbert. Here is his review of iPhone..