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Stephen Frank, in his article I’ve got iPhone Fever!, explains his enthusiasm for the recently announced gadget, and handles some common objections. This one made me laugh:

But I hate Cingular

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve used all four of the major cellular carriers in the US and they’re all scum-sucking spawn of Satan. None of them are cheap enough. None of them have clueful support agents. None of them have flawless networks. None of them are particularly interested in making your life better. It’s like trying to pick which of four fists you want to punch you in the face — at the end of the day, you’re still paying for a beating.

People can always find something to complain about. I suspect that many started complaining after hearing the price tag. Some complaints may be legitimate. Regardless, the iPhone will not be all things to all people. It is targeted at a specific market, and I believe it will be successful in that market…only time will tell though.

Typically adoption of new things follows a process called the Technology Adoption Life-Cycle. In this model, Innovators and Early Adopters pave the way for the rest of the crowd to eventually follow (Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards). Am I an early adopter? Not usually…but sometimes. I think I tend to be in the early Early Majority…cautious enough to let the Innovators suffer the inconvenience of living through all the early bugs, but not patient enough to wait until everyone else on the block has figured it out.