Well said, I think people are just seeing the specs: email, web browsing, plays music. What people aren't remembering is that the iPhone is an iPod (with cover flow), browses the web (with safari, and shows the page as the designer intended a user to see it) and connects to POP and IMAP servers for email (using an email app which is way easier to use than the one on my Treo 650).
People are also forgetting about the new visual voice mail feature, how cool is it going to be to pick and choose which voice mail you want to listen to first.
Oh and I forgot it also plays movies on a large screen. Show me a phone that can do all of this intuitively.
Actually, nobody's forgetting those things. Nobody is seeing the hardware specs and forgetting that software features also exist. Nobody thinks ease-of-use is irrelevant. Nobody thinks all user-interfaces are created equal. Nobody thinks little things like scrolling lists and zooming web pages are obscure or rare needs. Nobody sees the iPhone in use and thinks that using it is the same as using anything else. And whether the iPhone is the match for THEM specifically or not, nobody fails to realize that these things are a huge draw for many other people. All of these points are obvious.
Now, whether they're willing to ADMIT the above is of course another matter
Some people are trying VERY hard to ignore the iPhone's features so that they can say it's the same as something else. Well they can say those words, but if they're willfiully ignoring such obvious issues, do they think it's a convincing stance?
The iPhone's not for them--THEY want something else. That's great, and THAT is what they would be saying in all honesty. Or, they DO want an iPhone, badly, and feel they have to justify that they chose a different device. No need for that--the justification is simple: iPhone's great but it's not out yet, so you bought one of the best devices that IS out. No shame in that. Enjoy what you have.
But pretending that other phones "do everything the iPhone can" is not honest. It's a word game that intentionally avoids iPhone's biggest features. I expect to hear someone say: "It depends on what the definition of 'do' is."
How else can one say that iPhone's rapid list management (drag scroll, flick fast-scroll with momentum, quick tap-access to any letter) isn't something that it "does"? Or that browsing Web pages that are FULL Web pages, same as you see at home, with double-tap to auto-zoom (or un-zoom) any column or image, and auto-sensing landscape view on demand? Those aren't things iPhone "does" that others don't? What about finding a music album visually? Coverflow in iTunes--which is one step below iPhone's gesture-control--gets me to an album much faster than scrolling a list of artwork icons (or heaven forbid, just names).
Or maybe, nobody on a smartphone scrolls lists or views Web pages or browses music, so features that make those things easier and better doen't matter? That comes across as trying WAY too hard to put down the iPhone.
And even in hardware, when people say X has all the specs iPhone does, they are generally ignoring screen size, storage capacity, and controls/sensors!
So... hardware specs are all the matters, not software features... but screen, storage, and controls don't matter. Let me guess--thickness and weight probably don't matter either
If people prefer some other product, they should say that and not feel ashamed. They should be able to do that openly without pretending the iPhone doesn't do things that it does.
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