Apple's iPhone, what's it good for?

The Linux Journal has an interesting article out today titled "2007 Begins with a Bang" where the author Glyn Moody says

Wow: has there ever been a month in computing like this one? A January distinguished by not one major announcement, not two, but four significant events that will surely go down as milestones in the history of technology.

I eagerly scanned for these significant events and found 1) Open source for SL. 2) The iPhone. 3) An upgrade to WOW. 4) M$'s Vista. I found it strange that the Linux Journal would post these views. After all, who cares about Vista other than game players. And who plays WOW and SL when there is so much fun in real life? That leaves just the iPhone. And really what's the iPhone other than a fad for game playing kids? It's going to be something that easily scratches, probably not even water resistant, has a built in non-replaceable battery, costs a fortune, and is limited to a single carrier. Well, here's what it is good for. Forcing the competition to lower their prices and offer more features in the hope to woo more sober people away from the iPhone fad. And we are just starting to see responses now like this one: unlimited mobile-to-home calling plan. Now say you run a PBX system on your home phone? You now have unlimited calling from your cell phone. The savings for a small business could possibly be astronomical. And this is just the first reaction to the iPhone. Maybe 2007 has begun with a bang, ironically.