If the iPhone had shipped with 3G you'd have about one hour of battery life. And there would be far more complains. I don't have any problem believing greater than 90% of iPhone buyers don't have a clue what 3G is nor why they'd want it. There's a lot to complain about with the iPhone. Lack of 3G on the first revision isn't one of those things in my opinion.

The SDK was planned all along. I can't say if February was always the intention, but plans have always existed to bring it out at some point.

Personally, I'm waiting to see what they come out with as an update. I'm without a cell phone now and don't have any plans to get back on the grid until next year anyway. Hopefully the class-action suit against all Canadian carriers will have settled out by then as well (they're all ripping off customers with a $7-9 charge per month, on top of the advertised plan price, that they have falsified as a government surcharge or licensing fee for the past 10 to 15 years).

I'm also hoping Apple get in bed with the FON guys and that concept really takes off. I don't think I will ever use the carrier's data plans.

North America is probably 5 to 10 years behind Europe when it comes to technology adoption in many sectors, not just telecom.