Apple has said it will start selling the iPhone in June and I hope there are no delays. I am still not convinced the iPhone will be worthy of the increase in AAPL’s shares that it has built into the stock and a delay might actually cause some investors to finally hold Steve Jobs accountable for his style over substance approach with this phone. (Note that I have had an UP signal on AAPL since 3/19/07.) If they meet their deadline and all goes well, I will make note of it at that time. Until then, I remain unimpressed with the fact that not much is known about the phone except for a few flashy moments.

In hiding since January, Apple kept it largely out of the CTIA show and while that’s consistent with their development strategy, this product has been given way too much credit up to this point. When AT&T COO Stephenson flashed the phone on stage, the “ooh-and-ahhh” crowd seemed to get what they wanted. Hearing stories about the FCC Chairman Martin loving the phone was interesting but I am much more intrigued by the fact that Stephenson had not been able to navigate it until yesterday - only the second time he even held an iPhone. Shortly after the showmanlike flash, it was quickly spirited away and I wonder whether they ever plan to allow anyone outside their group to test it.

I respect Apple for their innovation and product quality and their past performance has earned that respect. All I am suggesting is that the hype has gotten out of hand. AT&T’s Stephenson also mentioned that over 1 million people have said they want to be notified when it goes on sale. HMMMM? In January, Jobs set 1% of phone sales by 2008 as his market share goal - an estimate of selling 10 million units. I don’t know whether to be excited by the suggestion of preselling to 1 million interested consumers or whether I should be disappointed. Unless all 1 million of them buy 10 phones each by the end of 2008, this expression of interest means about as much to me as a phone that has never been tested. For the sake of AAPL investors, I hope the phone is delivered on time, works beautifully and sells like crazy. Until then, it just looks like nothing but flash.