Nope, still not quite good enough, I'm afraid.

Though they have become the world's most admired company and despite Apple's announcements yesterday that its SDK would support the distribution of third-party applications as well as enterprise features such as Exchange integration, I remain unconvinced and uncompelled that the significant downside dimensions of the iPhone ownership experience can be overcome before a 3G model becomes available on a network other than AT&T.

It's just too big an investment with unreasonable switching costs for me to believe the hype.

But there were more surprises and open questions than just the hardware and network roadmap for iPhone that will prevent the device from dominating the market for customers like me going forward.

PCWorld.com had a good rundown of some of the most important in my list:

1. Where was Microsoft? Today's event included a parade of representatives from other companies-EA, Salesforce.com, AOL, Epocrates, Sega-applauding the day's news. But the most surprising development to come out of the event was fact that Apple is building support for Microsoft's ActiveSync into the iPhone-and no Microsoft exec graced the stage. There wasn't even a slide of enthusiastic boilerplate support from the behemoth of Redmond. Did Apple not want Microsoft there? Did Microsoft not want to be there? I dunno. But it's always a little uncomfortable when Apple and Microsoft jump into bed together. (Remember Bill Gates getting booed during Jobs's 1997 Macworld Expo keynote?)

2. What, no iChat? The iPhone's SMS application looks like the Mac's iChat, but it's texting, not instant messaging. Until today, I was assuming-or at least hoping –that it would evolve into a full-blown IM client. But today's event involved AOL showing an AIM client. It looked pretty good, but is it a sign that Apple has no plans to roll out real iChat for the iPhone, a move which would effectively render AIM for the iPhone redundant? Or maybe AIM for iPhone is a placeholder while Apple works on iPhone? That doesn't make sense, though, given that the whole point of today's AIM demo was that AOL was able to put the app together in a couple of weeks. I'm having trouble reading the tea leaves here…

3. What'll be prohibited? When Steve Jobs explained that all third-party native iPhone apps would be distributed exclusively through Apple, he said that it wouldn't permit everything, listing porn, privacy-invading apps, and bandwidth hogs as examples of software that would be a no-go. Later, in answer to questions from the audience, he said that VoIP would be permitted only over Wi-Fi, not over the cell network, and that (surprise!) iPhone-unlocking apps would be taboo. But I'd love to know what other programs won't make the grade. "Bandwidth hog" covers a lot of ground, potentially, including many apps that compete with Apple's own iTunes Store media offerings. (Then again, maybe nobody will find it worthwhile to compete with Apple when it comes to core iPod functions) A BitTorrent-over-cell client would likely be forbidden. But how about a BitTorrent-over-Wi-Fi one? How about Slingbox's mobile player or other TV streaming applications?

4. How will companies know if their programs are verboten? Sounds like nobody will bother to write porn, spyware, VoIP-over-cell, or unlocking apps under the assumption that Apple will distribute them. But how about, say, a photo-sharing app which might or might not be unacceptably piggy from a bandwidth standpoint? Will anybody write useful and interesting apps and then discover it's impossible to get them to customers?

5. Will anyone figure out how to distribute iPhone apps without going through Apple? Probably. Will Apple do its damndest to make it hard, possibly through software updates that obstruct any alternate routes onto the phone or which disable apps that have snuck their way there already? Probably.

So, someday I'm likely to finally succumb to temptation... then again, that Apple SDK/enterprise announcement is just a beta. It's not actually available to users until June. Meanwhile, Sony's XPERIA X1 with WinMo6.1 appears due before year-end, just about the time I'll be retiring my old HTC TyTN. In fact, HTC makes it and it's unlocked.