I am the perfect iPhone customer

In attempt to justify to myself not only the cost of the iPhone but also the hassle of obtaining one on Friday if possible, I have put together a list of reasons why I am the perfect iPhone customer:

• My primary use for my mobile phone is making and receiving calls, but I don’t make that many calls. I’m not a heavy cell phone user. I don’t see the lack of voice dialing and the lack of useful speed dial bothering me. They’re not really features I depend on (or in the case of voice dialing, even use).
• I am already a ATT Wireless (formerly Cingular) customer. So even though their network sucks, it’s not like I’ll feel like I’m missing out on something.
• The voice mail on the iPhone is purported to be light years better than regular voice mail. That is a killer feature for me. I hate most existing voice mail interfaces so badly that I can barely stand to use them. I am very much looking forward to voice mail with a decent user interface. (I use Callwave for voice mail now, so my voice mail just goes to my email inbox.)
• The number one feature I’d like on a new mobile phone is the ability to read email. I use Gmail for everything these days, so the iPhone is probably the perfect device to provide access to it.
• The number two feature I’d like is a real web browser. Every review says the iPhone’s web browser is excellent. My current phone’s web browser is non-existent. That’s a win.
• The iPhone offers Wifi support. I am usually at home or in my office, both of which have Wifi that I have access to. So I’d probably be using the iPhone on those networks most of the time. On the other hand, those are also environments where I have access to a computer, so I’m not sure how much I’d need the iPhone in those situations.
• Perhaps the big liability of the phone is that it has the virtual keyboard, but I’ve never had a phone with a real keyboard, so again, the iPhone won’t suffer by comparison. I have certainly never come to enjoy entering text with the phone keypad on the phones that I’ve had.

Laura Lemay says she’s not buying an iPhone. She already has a smart phone she paid a lot for, she’s very much used to its keyboard, and she’s wary of first generation Apple products. Makes sense to me.

I have never owned a smart phone, some of the iPhone’s features look killer to me, and I never buy first generation anything, so I’m going to give it a shot. Besides, my birthday is coming up.