f you're following the excitement over the launch of the iPhone, you'll notice that there is a crowd out there that isn't all that impressed with it, and isn't hyperventilating with ecstasy. Oh no, not for them the device that is so advanced that Apple has filed for more than 200 patents. Not for them the extraordinary beauty of its design � aesthetic and functional. Not for them the mind-boggling touch interface that is so smart, it can detect, compensate for or ignore an accidental touch.

There were a whole bunch of them out there, too, in 2001, when Apple launched the iPod. There was a chorus of faux outrage that a computer company would busy itself launching 'just another MP3 player'. Some even were not too impressed with the fact that it was all of 5GB, and could hold 1,000 songs.... more