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I don't dispute that the iPhone is an extremely cool little gadget, for a whole host of reasons I probably have no need to explain to most folks likely to be reading columns on this Website. There is also much blather about the iPhone being a satisfactory replacement for a road-warrioring laptop computer.

However, even though Apple's iconic smartphone has finally made it's long-delayed debut here in the Great White North, I won't be buying one. Now, strictly speaking, virtually the entire county where I live - one of the geographically largest in Nova Scotia but sparsely populated, is outside Rogers Communications' GSM/GPRS coverage range, the nearest edge of which is about 30 road miles away, so there wouldn't be much point anyway, but even if there was a Rogers GSM tower close by, I still wouldn't buy an iPhone because for starters there is no way in God's green earth that I would pay $70 or more a month for phone service and handheld Internet access. Especially locked into a three-year contract. That works out to $2,720 including the cost of the iPhone itself but not including taxes, or about the price of a 17" MacBook Pro.