yeah, most people i know feel that as long as their phone can handle calls and text it's just fine; but then carry an mp3 player, a camera, etc.
everything like that in a single device helps not leave having to remember to have charged several devices, or be weighed down by then all.
something i feel is good about it, is it's not using some cut-down handheld OS. you're using MacOSX (10.4) on it, this includes a fully functional standard web-browser and messenger. also given this is a full OS rather than standard phones that you can perhaps go through the menu at the same time, maybe send text at the same time; the iphone will flawlessly be able to multi-task anything you want to do.
the one i had the chance to use was still considered a "prototype" one that didn't have all of the release features, but still I could happily call, carry on a messenger conversation and text (which also appears as a messenger style chat).. then browse the web and share what i'm looking at with who i'm calling, or even put them on hold (using one the tracks in the phones database as "musak") and call someone from their online profile.
i mean if you took away the ipod features, this would still be more than worth getting purely for the added communication abilities. it's also nice having a real keyboard to work with, without the buttons being the size of a pin-head.
