Non-removable battery.
No removable / expandable storage.
Virtual keyboard with no tactile feedback.
No 3G wireless capability. Its EDGE networking would be a big step backwards from the EV-DO on my 700p. Very surprising Apple didn't give it UMTS / HSDPA support, especially since it's not coming out until June. (Update, 2007-01-25: That What's in a Name? article mentioned above has an interesting theory about why this decision might have been made.)
Cingular is the exclusive carrier for two years. Their monthly pricing for voice, data, and SMS is way more expensive than what I pay with Sprint.
Update, 2007-09-20: There are now various unlocking solutions available, though Apple plans to fight them. And around here this only opens up T-Mobile as a potential network provider.
And here's the kicker: no third-party software. No, not just no third-party software available yet — no way for any third-party software to be developed. For now Apple is treating it as a closed platform. I have a wide variety of software on my Treo, but for me, the essential apps are (in no particular order):
- phone
- SMS
- web browser
- note-taking
- games
- database
- SSH client
Looks like Apple has the first four covered well. For instance, Steve Jobs
demonstrated that the phone can be effectively used to crank-call
Starbucks, and the Maps demo on Apple's site demonstrates how to hang up on them without saying
anything (did Starbucks do something to piss Steve off? 
). On the web
browser, I worry about its desktop-style rendering and whether it forces
you to scroll left and right — something I absolutely canot stand
— to read text that doesn't happen to be formatted in a narrow column
like the examples shown in Steve's keynote (and that can't be zoomed to fit
the screen width yet remain easily legible). Palm's Blazer browser handles
this beautifully with selectable Optimized (content too wide for the screen
rearranged to be top-to-bottom rather than left-to-right) and Wide Page
(desktop-style rendering where you'll have to scroll left and right in some
cases) modes.
Speaking of scrolling, I think it's a horrible design that scrollbars in the iPhone interface are hidden even if there's content not visible because it's off the edge of the screen. This forces you to have to try scrolling on every web page, email, etc. that you access, to see if there's content you're not seeing, and deal with the interface's almost scolding rubber band effect ("Stop scrolling! There's no more!") whenever you're already at the bottom. Hopefully Apple will have an option setting for the scrollbars to always be visible when there's more to see?
There's been no demonstration of the the fifth item above, but I see there is a Notes icon on the iPhone's home screen. (And indeed it would be difficult to imagine the company that invented the PDA leaving out such basic PDA functionality or getting it wrong.) On number six, since iPods have games, I imagine there'll be at least one game for the iPhone by the time it comes out.
However, Apple is unlikely to make a database program or an SSH client available by then. I use a customizable database program on my Treo for storing sortable and filterable info on local businesses and restaurants (including their hours), my shopping lists, encrypted passwords, and many other types of data. I use an SSH client for administering my server and remotely accessing files on my machines at home. (On the same topic, I also use an S/KEY-compatible one-time-password generator on my Treo for when I have insufficient Sprint signal and need to log on to my server from an untrusted Internet-connected machine.) I've had these features on all my smartphones since my original Treo 300, and can't use a device that's unable to provide this functionality. Since Apple says the OS in the iPhone is a version of Mac OS X, it would be easy to port an SSH client, and not a ridiculous amount of work to port or write a handheld-friendly database program. Even if I had to write such software myself, I might be persuaded to buy an iPhone despite the other above problems I have with it. Unfortunately, Apple has prevented any third party from filling this gap, at least for the forseeable future.
Update, 2007-09-20: Apple announced in June that they'll support third-party Web 2.0 applications on the iPhone. This is better than nothing, but Web 2.0 on a relatively slow mobile processor is not the best way to implement something like, say, an SSH client. But it seems that people have cobbled together one or more unofficial SDKs for the iPhone, as you can now install packages such as Perl, BitchX, ncftp, Stumbler, Term-vt100, an NES emulator, Frotz, OpenSSH, etc. (I'm guessing there are not yet equivalents of the database and one-time-password apps I consider essential on my Treo, though.) Of course this is not officially supported by Apple, and as with the unlocking solutions, they may take steps to prevent such software from working (although there is much less incentive for them to fight this category of hacks).
Update, 2007-09-30: Well, Apple took those steps. The most recent iTunes-delivered firmware update (1.1.1) reportedly wiped out all third-party software, and firmware encryption changes have been made that may make it impossible to get such software working again. This certainly makes the iPhone an absolute non-contender for me. Very disappointed in Apple on this one.
Update, 2008-07-05: The iPhone 3G will be out in a few days, and it resolves my "no 3G" complaint. In addition, third-party software is now supported — Apple thankfully caved to the demands of developers who complained that restricting apps to HTML + CSS + JavaScript was entirely insufficient, and they released a proper native SDK in March. Will take awhile for the iPhone software market to expand to fill all my handheld software needs, though. And my other complaints with the iPhone remain, although it's rumored that Apple has been testing an iPhone version with a physical keyboard, to try to make further inroads into the enterprise market.
Update, 2010-02-05:
Well, I am now an iPhone user, so I can't say it's "worthless to me"
anymore. After my work BlackBerry died, they
got me an iPhone 3GS instead. Although I love a lot of the features,
design, and available apps, most of my original complaints remain.
AT&T (formerly Cingular)'s exclusivity agreement remains in place despite it originally being reported (including by me above) that it was to last 2 years (though there are many rumors that Verizon will finally see the device later in 2010). Although the iPhone is now the premiere platform for mobile application development, developers are strictly limited in what they can do due to Apple's draconian app acceptance policies, and many have ceased developing for the platform after having months of work and an income source snuffed out by Apple caprice. And now that I have an iPhone of my own, I've discovered new annoyances, such as the very poor experience on traditional games where you move a character around the screen, due to the lack of physical buttons and the imprecision of the touch screen.
As of now, I'm still carrying my personal Palm Centro to complement my work iPhone. When the Centro dies and Sprint doesn't want to replace it anymore, I will most likely be replacing it with an Android device.
