after using htc hero for about a week now.. i want to sum up my opinion on this phone..
bare in mind that im iphone user previously so most of the comparison will between this 2..

pros..
HTC Sense UI.. its the single best feature of this phone, 7 homescreens of awesomeness
the best in sense UI is able to select scenes.. different phone for different moods
Integration with online social network, flickr, twitter, facebook.. its easy n cool
love the browser, very easy n effective + flash support
very modern looking exterior, i guess im just a bit bored with how iphone looks likes +fav taflon..
very very customizable.. as compared to iphone.. iphone can become customizable after jailbreaking as well.. just not out of the box.
the setting up email is so easy.. i always have problems using hotmail on iphone..
mutitasking.. this is what apple os on iphone lacks most.. the only thing iphone can multitask is its music player

cons..
poor audio quality through headphone, poor music player from HTC.. iphone's is easily a better music player
poor camera quality. this means more MEGAPIXEL doesnt mean better camera
not as zippy as iphone..
not as many app as itunes but soon it will catch up
games on iphones are better, it also has many gameloft game but in unplayable java format.. sucks!
wallpaper & lockscreen.. image is low res? this is a bit irritating.. but i can live with it

vs iphone
i feel HTC hero is great out of the box and it has great potentials..
but it will be as good as it is now and 2 years later because i am not anticipating much update coming from HTC themselves
its potential will depend solely on the growth of android os itself
as compared to iphone.. i remembered when i was using iphone 1.0 it doesnt even have apps.. and with 3.0 update, its not the same phone anymore..
i am not expecting the level of software update from HTC as they are too busy making HTC tatoo, HTC HD2,, ETC ETC HTC dragon?

apple in the other hand, keep everything too tight to themselves.. c'mon, paying for your ringtone is still a little over the board wont you agree?
not to mention cut-n-paste only seen when 3.0 is released.. cough cough.. message forwarding etc etc u know what i mean
and the OS is not open source, as compared to android as a platform..