Remember the Newton? It was supposed to revolutionize handheld computing, but failed because it lacked a good way to input data; the handwriting recognition just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In the iPhone euphoria, a number of journalists seem to have forgotten that’s impossible to create a single device that is at the same time a “breakthrough internet device, revolutionary phone, and widescreen IPod.” The iPhone looks to be a fantastic device for consuming media and making calls, but profoundly limited for any activity involving text entry. Slate magazine, at least, gets it right, quoting David Pogue of the New York Times, who is one of the very few people who’ve actually been allowed to play with the thing:

At Apple events past, journalists were often invited to a room lined with a dozen or two of the products Jobs had just shown onstage, for unscripted hands-on test-drives. This time the iPhone is being kept behind glass. So, I can’t tell you whether it’ll rock my world or drive me nuts with a fatal flaw akin to my old iMac’s noisy fan. I’ll have to settle for linking to David Pogue’s one-hour test for the New York Times, and note that Pogue, a notorious Apple fan, complained, “Typing is difficult. The letter keys are just pictures on the glass screen, so of course there’s no tactile feedback.” You’ve got close to six months before you can own one, so no rush.

My suggestion: If you’re tempted by an iPhone, pay attention to how much time you spend typing on your current phone. My Blackberry is my last line of defense against marauding editors, co-workers, and my wife, the speed-thumbed executive. I’m sure an iPhone would be a better Web surfer and music player, but I worry the touchscreen keyboard won’t let me type back at everyone fast enough to survive. Also, I’ve already quit Cingular once; do I really have to sign up with them again? And unless I can install third-party applications, as I do on my Mac, I’ll surely get frustrated. I’ll have to do a shootout against the real thing in June.

The other essential limitation in the initial implementation is the fact that it only supports 2.5 EDGE, not anything faster. For a device shipping in June that would like to be able to support streaming multimedia, that will prove an important limitation, especially given the relatively small on-device storage. (Despite the fantastic screen, the iPhone has the storage capacity of a high-end Nano.)

Other important questions concern openness: will Apple lock us in to proprietary software and media formats (i.e. the iTunes store) approved by them and their carrier partner (no skype or DivX)?

As we know, Apple always comes out with a second and third generation of their devices that make you regret owning the first generation. I for one will hold on to my $500 till the next generation.