However, the opposite is true: The iPhone, despite its many media-oriented virtues and its sweet design, will do far less than most existing smart phones. The problem Apple now faces because of Jobs' premature detail-oriented announcement is that of dashed expectations. When customers expect more and don't get it, they become dissatisfied.

What doesn't iPhone do? Unlike most smart phones, the iPhone doesn't have voice-dialing, voice memos, 3G Internet access, Word or Excel support, one-handed operation, or video recording. It can't be used as a laptop modem. The battery can't be replaced. It doesn't support removable storage. The calendar, task list and e-mail won't sync with Microsoft Outlook.

As a media player, the screen is big and the interface is undeniably cool. But storage limitations will seriously annoy people when they actually try to use the thing. Consider this: The operating system by itself will reportedly use about half a gigabyte. Add the included applications plus personal data such as contacts, all your songs, album art (to take advantage of the music browsing feature) and maybe a dozen or so podcast subscriptions, and at least 2 GB will be used before any movies are loaded. Movies available on iTunes range from just under 1 GB to just over 2 GB. There's not a lot of space left for video.

By comparison, you could easily fit every every stoner comedy, inane chick flick and bus-oriented action movie Keanu Reeves has ever participated in on a iPod G5. But you probably could not squeeze even the Matrix Trilogy on the 8 GB iPhone and no more than one Matrix movie on the 4 GB iPhone.

Another thing that will dash expectations is the fact that Apple is not yet opening iPhone to applications created by third-party developers. By contrast, besides letting you surf the Net, chat, do e-mail, listen to music, watch videos and so on, BlackBerrys, Treos and Windows Mobile devices have literally thousands of applications developed by third parties. IPhone users will miss out on all of that.