ezinger,
Like I said, I'm just thrifty when it comes to such gadgets, hence I look at it from a different perspective.  To begin with, not everyone owns a 3G enabled phone - for one, I no longer do 

Also, unlike many people, I find a phone to be a phone and as convenient as it is to have a camera attached to it, if I'm going to take a photo, I rather be carrying a proper digital camera *shrugs* - perhaps I'm just too stereotyped? *shrugs*

If you're getting the iPhone for fashion sake then by all means, go get the iPhone... I'm pretty sure you're gonna be envied by all your friends but do beware about compatibility issues before you bring the phone back here yah?  

I can't afford to be the first person to own a brand new sports car here, but well, even if i can, that's not gonna help me reach self actualisation level on Maslow's chart 

YA. Sure can get it overseas. But? Do you forgot sth? Cingular network? You need to unlock iphone in order to be able to use in malaysia. Once unlock, i'm sure it will void warranty and you need to wait for the unlock software to release.  So troublesome

Here you go :[

Even you get iphone from other countries (UK for an example), i'm sure it will contract with other network operator. That's mean you need to unlock. And even you can get underwater set, it's just like AP set in mobile world. But for iphone, it different case here. For me, i don't dare get such iphone  Just my 2bit here

I've been using AP sets for awhile Haven't had problems before

Granted Mots/SEs/Nokias are a piece of cake to unlock nowadays, but I have full faith in those crazy phone hackers in LYP/Sg Wang to crack the iPhone soon after its release.

So, anyone want to join me on my trip to the US in June? Visit the 5th Ave Apple Store, drool at the iPhone, maybe even buy one?

Haha orders... it depends My offer was to join me on the trip
Since I'm getting a nice hotel for quite some time, all you have to do is pay for the ticket.

No, the company's paying for it.

No offense bro but me being a guy and all, I'd rather share the room with tinkerbel than you

i am giving my opinion about it over here 

Eventhough i'm not staying at those countries, but i know few friends staying at those places.

Do u know that ipod and iphone is not that same? Even apple has worldwide warranty, once iphone is unlocked (illegally i assume), it will sure void warranty and you need go other shop to fix it or what. And iphone is the first phone made by apple. So it will be troublesome.

The way i look at apple's point of view, iphone need to be with contracted. Apple will gain some of the shares(profit again) from those network operators and the iphone can sell at much lower price. If without contract, apple won't gain that share profit and i don't think it can sell at that low price 

ezinger,
I never said iPhone be full of bugs - in fact, nothing in life is ever bug-free if u asked me 

Maybe I should list the well known Apple problems before:

- Macbook staining (1st gen issue, fixed later)
- iBook logic board issues (1st gen issue, fixed in iBook G4)
- iMac G5 overheating issues (1st gen issue, fixed later)
- Powermac G5 power supply problems
- Powerbook display problems

All manufacturers today have some sort of issues with first generation products. It's how the manufacturer responds to that problem that separates the good from the nasty. I've no problems with Apple US before. I honestly have not had to do so with Apple Malaysia so far so no comments.

*kEKkekeKEKek*    Got sifu oredi..... so, who's gonna help me list out the uh, known viruses for Macs, if any? 

ezinger,
A bit like how do you expect us to list defects of Apple manufactured phones when history states they never produced one before? 

Er... my above answer cannot meh?  Er.. what about flies then? 

Come now hardware bugs are bugs too. And no, Apple is not immune to software/OS bugs either. iTunes on OSX alone has had plenty of bugs, from people losing their playlists to people being connected to the ITMS in the wrong country.

Don't defend Apple too hard dude, tinkerbel calls that fanboyism Apple makes mistakes too.

whatever it is, there's no need to speculate. we will only know once the device is out and feedback from the market review. best part we dont have to worry so badly since it will only be available in asia in 2008 or near 2009.
to get an ipod before iphone it's subjective to individuals. as for myself i dont mind getting both. i prefer to have my phone to be able to play mp3 and video, so far even WM5 / ppc 2003 / symbian could not satisfy me for various reasons such as screen size, lousy earphones. i think iphone is good for all-in-one device but then again ipod 80gig could serve better purpose as bootable hdd on mac and also as external hdd.
so to get ipod or iphone for music player or not and just stay with ipod blablabla will be a forever a delima. thx  to apple to make things so 'easy' for us. anyway.. at the end of the day, u must be happy with what u spend on. i'm happy with macbook c2d black that i recently bought altou i almost get the macbookpro 17".