Apple are the king of obsolescence, most phones in that price range thad most of those features a year ago, steve jobs himself said if you want the coolest thing youll have to buy a new ipod every year.

If treehuggers are looking for a long lasting mobile, look for something with expandable memory , an sd card slot or similar, for the same price consumers can get a phone which will take up to 32 gb of memory (4 at prescent but removable and swappable) and has a 5 mp or 3.2 mp camera with wifi, bluetooth stereo streaming and expendability, instead of chucking the unit when the upgrade with 16 gigs comes out, get the 16 gig sd card, and have the 4 gig as a backup/extra.

And i know it may seem i am proving your first point, but i am not attacking apple, just the units taht are not upgradable.

It's a waste of money. Get a cheaper Smartphone that does more.

Steve Jobs says you should buy a new iPod every year. What makes you think his stance on iPhones will be much different?

[Steve-o can say anything he wants - on the consumer side, you have the power to make this the last phone you buy. mjo]

I still like my first phone. It doesn't take pictures. It doesn't play music. It makes phone calls.

The statement that the iPhone's cost to Apple is $220 is absurd. Sure, the cost of the components MAY come to $220, but that is by no means the total cost.

In addition to assembly costs, there is all the cost of research and development for the phone. It seems that everyone if forgetting that.

I am not denying that Apple makes money on the sale of each iPhone, but we must factor in ALL the costs before we all start counting Apple's profits.

"Apple are the king of obsolescence, most phones in that price range had most of those features a year ago, steve jobs himself said if you want the coolest thing youll have to buy a new ipod every year."

The point isn't the features. The point is that they're now easy enough to use that you'll actually use them. All the reactions I've heard from people who bought the phone have said that, while their old phones had these features, they never actually used them.

So which is better for the environment: A feature you buy that you'll never use, or a feature you buy that you use all the time?

Also, which is better for the environment: Keeping a computer turned on 24/7 just in case you need to check your email, or having a small, low power appliance that lets you keep your computer turned off?

Like Mark said, leaders are the ones catching shrapnel. You'll notice that people aren't complaining about Palm being bad for the environment or planning obsolescence.

Ok, how about you all stop making people believe that the iPhone really is a $220 device? Check any commercial product (*any*) that you own and tell me whether the price of its parts is the price you payed when you bought it. There's this little thing called R&D (hint: expensive) and manufacturing on top of that (whether we customers should really pay the hefty sum for marketing, however, is another story).

$220 just isn't a relevant number for comparison and if that's what you really want, then how about a price comparison to all the parts of a new Smartphones/PocketPC? My PPC was...$500 I believe. It doesn't have a phone, no camera, no 8gigs of memory (although it does have a compact flash and a sd slot which is a flexible solution). Moreover it doesn't have the interface of the iPhone. Instead I get a slow shoehorned Windows look-a-like with multi-level menus not at all fit for a mobile device. The iPhone interface in itself probably cost Apple quite a penny to develop. To be frank I think that the software/GUI/OS of the iPhone is much morer than the sum of its components. It's how those components are used and what the end result and user experience is like that's important. Just look at the Nintendo Wii. Maybe the iPhone could be seen as somewhere between the Wii and the PS3 price looking at the user experience relative to its cost effectiveness.

Do I think the iPhone is too expensive? Yes, considering I'm forced to sign an expensive contract, only have one company to choose from and still my wallet doesn't feel the price cut it should.

Do I think the iPhone is too expensive in the way some journalists/people seem to do? No, because if you juggle around numbers that aren't relevant to the end consumer then you get a non-relevant comparison as a result.

"Apple are the king of obsolescence"

Actually this is far from the truth. Apple keeps releasing software updates that optimize and increase the speed of their older platforms (G3/G4 based) even now that they have dropped that line of products.

Their legacy product support and development is pretty admirable.

"In addition to assembly costs, there is all the cost of research and development for the phone. It seems that everyone if forgetting that."

Or maybe treehugger believes that Apple shouldn't pay its engineering, sales, development, HR, or other internal departments. Or perhaps they think that the highly skilled workers who assemble the iPhone should work for free too....

[ no such claim made mjo]

A UMPC is low power and more useful than in iphone. Has anyone forgot as soon as the battery goes bad on the iphone it's just an expensive paper weight? Sorry need a new one. This is nothing more than blind Apple fanboy love.

UPGRADES!!!!! I own a Microsoft Zune and i just hate that one day the battery wont last more that 10 hours, and the freaking battery is unaccesible....if the battery runs out with years of use (yes utopic apple kids, that actually happens) i WILL HAVE TO replace the whole gadget....not just the battery.

What other gadgets works that way....Ahh yes!!... the iPhone and its father...the iPod.

By the way....if apple is king of something that would be The King of Scratched Gadgets....iPod, iBook, iPhone get scratched...even with the cleaning mop provided with them.

Why is this even on TreeHugger? Apple has not so much to do with green. I'm not even sure what this article even says. Plus Gizmodo is essentially a Apple fan site. Practically 75% + of their post contain the word 'Apple'.

[it's here to remind you to buy a beautifully designed iPhone, the last phone will will ever buy. And if ending the cell phone upgrade cycle is not green news, I don't know what is! mjo]

@Yair: I don't have many battery problems with the Zune. Well, I don't use it all up at once, that is.

Has anyone forgot as soon as the battery goes bad on the iphone it's just an expensive paper weight?

yes, considering it's something you just made up. they've announced a battery replacement program, and there's no real reason why 3rd parties can't do the same thing.

I think it's a little naive to assume that people won't be upgrading their phones once they lay their mitts on the iPhone. There will always be a cooler, better phone around the corner. In fact, Apple is probably working on the next generation of iPhone as we speak.

[You must be richer than I am, I generally don't shell out $600 dollars lightly. I still think people see it for what it is, the last phone they will buy. mjo]

I have never been impressed by that overpriced Ipod or this Iphone. A simple MP3 player with expanded memory is the best way to go. Very few people need to have 8Gb of audio with them at any time. Mainly just travelers or those allowed to listen to music at work. 256Mb of SD memory can hold about 60 songs at a reasonable bitrate. And of course you wouldn't need that pathetic Itunes software spying on your every move.

With rechargeable batteries that can be replaced and possibly charged via Solar.

Rip your own CDs. Support artists no Apple, buy Entire Albums and not single songs. It you only like 1 or 2 songs on an album, the artist must not really be worth your time or effort. Don't fall for hype.

Remember, an MP3 is severly limited in Audio quality due to sample rates. No point in putting good money into bad quality.

Buy Vinyl you won't drop that in the toilet.

Evan has an important insight here: that our technology needs to be designed to be upgradable.

For example, it's better to be able to insert a new hard drive in your old iPhone, than to have to throw the whole thing out for next year's model.

Sorry Mark, this is not the last gizmo, no more than Time magazine is right this week to call Rupert Murdoch "the last tycoon."

[ oh, you dont give yourself enough credit - you can make it your last gizmo with a little effort. mjo]

And of course you wouldn't need that pathetic Itunes software spying on your every move.

i get around that with my tinfoil hat!

First they are already releasing a newer version of the Iphone which will have 3G capabilities so all those people who went nuts trying to get one it is already outdated. This cell phone craze is just out of control, the prices are out of control, they are making new phones to release every few months, really how many types of phones do people really need? They are at such a pace to beat each other out eventually they are going to run out of options. ALAS, the I phone to save the day! Nothing, you buy today is worth the price tag. All these gadgets are to just fuel the materialistic craze of wanting to feel hip, cool, and important today. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Be my guest.

Concerning this comment "With rechargeable batteries that can be replaced and possibly charged via Solar."

They've already developed a system that allows you to charge your electronics without any wires at all using a certain radio frequency, if I remember, by just putting your gadget next to the charging station which could be adapted to be anything.(similar to how your Oral B Triumph toothbrush charges for those that own one) My point being that maybe one day be won't need to ever charge anything again or use a wall plug again since we could have wireless electricity. Oh boo if this happens all that money they will be losing on there, guessing, 1000% profit they make on selling the power accessories(all accessories for that matter) at the store, that I can buy off eBay for a fraction of the cost.

Apple is the king of obsalescance? What crack are you smoking

(posted from my 'just fine thanks' 2.5 year old iBook G4, with my 4 year old 'no problems since purchase' iMac G4 in the other room.

And steve didn't say you had to buy an iPod every year, he said if you had to have the latest and greatest you're going to buy one every year.

Isn't odd how people go crazy for features that have lived without all their lives, that they suddenly can't seem to live without.

Some technology is useful: internet,email and telephone. The great ones tend have something in common - they allow us to communicate and ideas to be shared more easily - without them their wouldn't be much of a green debate.

But MP3 players? All they do is allow us to ignore the world around us on our commute and fully immerse ourselves in our own self-centric universe.

If you're going to create an outright consumer item, then at least make it either recyclable or upgradeable.

Apple is the king of obsolescence.

They sure are! Oh, wait a minute... I said exactly the wrong thing.

iTunes STILL syncs to first generation iPods, even though they're now up to the 7th generation.

Frankly, unless the irreplaceable battery dies, the device breaks, or new devices stop supporting the device (such as if the new Mac only supported the new iTunes which doesn't support your iPod), planned obsolescence doesn't really exist; consumers simply choose to believe that their item is obsolete because a newer shinier item can be purchased.

Posted from a 2002 PowerMac G4 tower.