We have all waited years for our phone to be more like our PC and finally we got something that compares. The iPhone from apple was a home run and when I first got my hands on one as a tester for the Apple team. I was in awe. I love the iPhone and I think it is an amazing piece of hardware. I have to admit, Apple really does a GREAT job at making things look really beautiful BUT I think the iPhone really should have been an open platform. Can you imagine you buy a PC that only connects to one website, forces you to connect to their broadband partner, allows you to use their word processor only? Imagine being limited to that extent? This is what the Apple iPhone does, it locks you in. The following is what limitations the iPhone has:

1. Development - Developers are not allowed to write applications to the iPhone (ugh, without hacking). I think this is a huge mistake. Imagine the windows platform without the developer community; this is what makes windows so popular. Any developer can build an application, distribute it, sell it, open source it, etc.

2. Unlocked - Simple, they should not have chosen a partner, they should have worked with everyone, they would have made more money, they would have had more adaptation, they would be more open and liked. It would have been so simple. Just keep it unlocked?

3. Punish Consumers - This is one of the biggest mistakes made by Apple. With their new update, they disabled every phone that was unlocked. Basically they rendered the phone useless. Those who paid hundreds, if not thousands of dollars will now have a useless piece of hardware until your next geeky hacker comes with a new hack, sometimes taking hours, days, weeks and in many cases months. I know they have a user agreement, well, screw they user agreement!

4. Jobs the control freak - Listen, it does not work. People have come to love apple because they seem to care about consumers and make things which are pretty. Why would a company that has so much going for it do this? It does not make sense. Some will argue that it's all about money. I agree, it is all about the bottom line but an unlocked iPhone would make Apple more money :) Steve just wants to control every aspect of the consumers life, he is doing a good job if it. The hype around the iPhone has been huge, all I heard from everyone for months was iPhone, iPhone, iPhone and it stood up to the hype but unless Apple changes their policy, people will shy away from their obvious greed and control.

5. Competition - I have seen other phone operating systems which kick the iPhones BUTT. The problem that Nokia and others have is that for some reason they just can't make anything look pretty. This is where Apple is KING, they make everything they touch look pretty and people are naturally attracted to beautiful things.

6. Change - I think eventually Apple will release a SDK, eventually release an UNLOCKED version. I think they will realize it is better for the consumer and better for their bottom line. Let us hope it is sooner than later. It took them years to open up the MAC API, it was much to late as Microsoft had beaten them to the heart of the consumer but more important to the developer community. Don't YOU REMEMBER the CRAZY video of Steve Ballmer running around Screaming DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, look for it on you tube "Steve Ballmer +developers"

-Selectinventory