Yes, I’ve got an iPhone. No, I don’t want to make a big deal of it. Yes, I’m using it to write this. No, I’m not on the toilet.

It’s as awesome as you’ve no doubt heard it is. It’s also as limited, lacking many esoteric features I’d gotten used to on my prior device. You’ve probably heard about them too (push email, Bluetooth music, 3G). It’s still worth it, of course, though not for the rich possibilities I thought lay in homebrew applications. In truth they’re a rather depressing bunch at this stage, with the only feature I’d actually want (instant messaging) being as poorly implemented as the file browsers and the lightsaber emulators.

What does make it worth for me it isn’t the iPod function, as you might expect, but the browser. The phone has always been a communications device, its two most popular features remaining calling and sms no matter what multimedia bells and whistles are crammed inside. A full-blown, usable web-browser is a natural extension to this, letting communication by email, rss, blogs, wikis, social networks and any other web 2.0 bullshit occur wherever you happen to be.

Of course, the music is nice too. It’s not really anything the competition don’t have though.

It is past 1pm, and I am still in bed. This is part because I am a lazy motherfucker, and in part due to this new mattress being so goddamn comfortable.

Being an exemplary idle bum does not mean I missed the news of the day though, namely that O2 have landed the exclusivity deal with Apple for their iPhone in the UK. I have two things to say regarding this.

Firstly, that the data arrangement is grade-A bullshit. EDGE makes sense in America, where the coverage is widespread, but O2 are estimating a mere 30% national coverage by launch day in November. 30%, or as scientists say, fuck all.

Secondly, how does the iPhone tariff measure-up? The iPhone itself is already available in the UK via import, unlocked and ready to go on all the mobile networks, so the only new products announced today are O2’s plans.

- Let us pick O2’s very cheapest one and use it as a base for comparison: 18 months at £35/month for ~4GB of data, 200 minutes, 200 texts, and no phone (you must pay £269 for that).

- T-mobile will do you 18 months at £32.50/month for ~3GB of data, 200 minutes, 200 texts and a free Nokia N73 (which can be eBayed towards an iPhone). Of course, T-mobile UK apparently don’t have any EDGE coverage to speak of, so don’t bother taking your unlocked iPhone to them just yet.

- Vodafone will do you 18 months at £32.50 for a pathetic 120MB of data (seriously, that’s their “unlimited” plan, with extra megabytes a pound each), 225 minutes and 250 texts and a variety of shitty Samsung handsets for free.

- Orange are the most insulting of the bunch, however, doing 18 months at £33 for a whopping 30MB of data for 150 minutes and 300 texts and pretty much any feature-phone for free. A gigabyte of data on Orange? Why, that’ll be £75 per month, sir, exactly ten times T-mobile’s.

[edit] Spoke to someone in an Orange store today and they’re not as bad as their website suggests, offering 20MB/day (500Mb/month) for £8 on top of whatever plan you fancy

- 3 have something called X-series, that does 1GB/month of data for possibly £20/month? I have no idea, their website is so bloody confusing I really can’t be bothered to investigate further.

Now, I’m focusing on data allowance here, but for me this is the primary draw of the iPhone. It’s also the main thing I use my current handset for, and let’s face it, the only real differentiating factor between any of these shitty plans.

If it were to transpire that T-mobile UK actually do have EDGE coverage then I’m sold. Otherwise 3GB per month isn’t going to do you a damn bit of good over 64k/sec GPRS.