Today marked the revolutionary unveiling of Apple's iPhone but to my surprise (I had hope for more support from different mobile carriers) that it will be exclusive to Cingular. I should have known that in order for Apple to spread quickly, they would have to adopt the worldwide standard, GSM. I can't sign up for that cell service because truthfully, after going to a Cingular Store today and asking if they could match my plan, they said no. They also did verify that Sprint has the cheapest for data plans which also might change relatively soon unless the "others" come down in pricing. The prices are too high and just ridiculous for data on other networks. Some still have the pay per megabyte deal which was popular in 2000. To even think that Apple would go exclusive for two years!!! It's going to be ashame that a lot of people will not be able to sign up and play with the iPhone because of this. Now, new questions of, "Where is the Widescreen iPod?" and other things like DVR functionality for the Apple TV device are setting up the stage for the next Apple event whenever that may be. I really hope that there is just one more thing coming along, because this event didn't do too much for a whole lot of people. It did signify the fact that Apple is for real and that the other players of Smartphones better step it up a notch. As Apple stock climbed 6% today immediately after the announcement, both Palm and RIM dove! That just shows you how much investors really feel about Apple and what happens when they enter the battle. I'm just about over the new hype of the devices which stinks only because I won't be able to play with any of them. I can't afford them anyways, but that's not the point.

Apple isn't just directing the iPhone towards a select few of Apple geeks, but now they are targeting the Apple geeks with AT&T / Cingular Accounts. That's a crazy small demographic perhaps, but man, that's one hell of a target. I'm sure that when the devices are released worldwide, they will start to show up unlocked so the friends at T-Mobile can party too, but it does look like the CDMA family is going to have to rely on Palm or RIM to do something that incredible. I was hesitating on upgrading my Treo 650 to the 700p, but looks like I might just be doing that soon. Oh well...