At the moment, the iPhone is in an advanced prototype stage, which I was allowed to play with for only an hour; the finished product won't be available in the United States until June, or in Europe until the fourth quarter. So this column is a preview, not a review.

Already, though, one thing is clear: the name iPhone may be doing Apple a disservice. This machine is so packed with possibilities that the cellphone may actually be the least interesting part.
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The iPhone's beauty alone would be enough to prompt certain members of the iPod cult to dig for their credit cards. But its Mac OS X-based software makes it not so much a smartphone as something out of "Minority Report".
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The iPhone is not, however, a BlackBerry killer. The absence of a physical keyboard makes it versatile, but also makes typing tedious. Instead of raised alphabet keys, you get virtual keys on the screen. They're fairly small, and of course you can't feel them. So typing is slow going, especially for the fat of finger.
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Nonetheless, the iPhone won't be the smartphone for everybody. You may well consider the Cingular exclusivity or the price a deal-breaker. You may also be disappointed that the iPhone can't open Microsoft Office documents, as the Treo can (although Apple says it can open PDF documents), or wonder why it's not a "3-G" cellphone that can exploit higher-speed, next-generation cellular towers as they arrive in the coming years. And you may worry about putting all your digital eggs into one losable, droppable, glass-front basket.

Nick Starr points out that Cingular still charges a deposit of up to $750 for some customers who have bad credit. Add up $599 for the phone with a $750 deposit and you have one expensive little telephone.

Of course, I have to point out that you can earn your deposit back after a year of good standing with Cingular, but still - that's one heckuva a barrier to entry.

The results so far: With 4,501 votes, 55 percent say they'd pass on the deal, versus 45 percent who said they'd sign right up. [...]  In presidential politics that's called a landslide, but in consumer electronics let's call it a dead heat.

SMS: The iPhone has an iChat-like threaded SMS app. Windows Mobile has it.

Calendar: The iPhone has a calendar that syncs to iCal. Windows Mobile has that with the Missing Sync.

Widgets: The iPhone has expandable widgets for Weather and Stocks. WM can install apps that can do Weather and Stocks, not to mention RSS, Skype, Emulation Gaming, hundreds of other things.

Google Maps: The iPhone has Google Maps. WM has Google Maps and Windows Live Search.

Email: The iPhone has rich text email. WM doesn't.

Browser: The iPhone has a full-screen zoomable desktop-like browser. Windows Mobile has Mobile Opera, which isn't full-screen and doesn't zoom.

Touchscreen with Multi-Finger Gestures: Yeah, WM doesn't do that.

But you know what? Even though WM has all of these same apps, they're not as usable, not as complete, and generally not as good as Apple's solutions. That's why the iPod "won" the MP3 player race, and that's why the iPhone is going to win over Windows Mobile--not to mention all other smartphones.

And that's why we're ready to drop our Windows Mobile phone for an iPhone any time.