iTouch or iPhone or iWait?

I almost bought a hacked (to unlock the SIM-lock to the US AT&T) iPhone when I saw it a few weeks ago in my regular shop... until I asked whether the firmware can be upgraded... and the answer was no. Is that important? To me it is becoz a lot of gadgets are sold these days without thorough user testing and there will almost always be a need to upgrade the firmware in the future.

But the iPhone is a very enticing piece of gadget... imagine a phone, wifi internet browsing, iTunes compatibility in a sexy design and a brilliant touch screen user interface. There are shortcomings though... like only 8Gb storage, no external memory card slot, built-in battery that cannot be changed like normal mobile phones and no 3G (only the slower Edge).

Apple has also launched the iTouch, which is an iPhone without the phone bit. This goes up to 16Gb of built-in memory. And that's the problem because both devices are great video playback devices but with only 8 or 16Gb storage, that's hardly enough for both music and videos. And the iPhone is not much more expensive than the iTouch (considering you are actually getting a mobile phone in an all-in-one device).

So I think I will wait... until the iPhone Gen 2 comes out with at least 60Gb storage, replaceable battery pack and 3G (better still HSDPA or 3.5G).