Here's my 2 cents: Saying the iPhone is not a cell phone is like saying a digital camera without a LCD screen is not a digital camera. Sure it is lacking a feature most cameras have, sure it is not a camera I would buy, but it is still a camera.

I completely agree with what your said about how the iPhone lacks some of the most basic features, in fact you barely scratched the surface, I could easily list dozens of other missing features. Actually the ones you listed are, in my opinion, some of the more minor ones. The iPhone is actually missing more than it has. However telling someone to not buy the iPhone because You regret buying yours because it is missing features You want is not very fair to them.

The fact is that some of the features that the iPhone Does have are the best available on any phone. So for others to deny themselves having those features to make a stand on your behalf is not reasonable.

The thing is people simply need to be aware of the features and limitations of any product they buy (and your blog will no doubt help in that regard). So, I agree with you: People should not buy the iPhone now ...If they have done their research and know what it offers and what it's limitations are, and they feel that it's limitations outweigh it's features for Them.

Yes,absolutely, if a product fails to meet your needs you should tell others. It just seemed you were telling others to not buy a product that you are dissatisfied with, not asking others to make up their own minds based on your info and to not buy it if those wissing features were as important to them as they are to you. I guess that was probably implied.

In answer to your question here is a small list of a few of the missing features that are most important to me:
-no MMS (picture messaging)
-no cut/paste (as you already mentioned)
-you can only have one Email signature for all your email accounts (so when I send a email using my personal email account it has the same signature as my work account and I am forced to scroll down and delete it every time, and often I forget and just hit send)
-no ability to sync notes or tasks with my computer (contacts and calendar events sync, there is just mo way to sync notes/tasks
-no ability to forward a SMS
-no ability to see when a SMS was sent or received
-no ringer profiles (ie, having a work profile where all alerts are just a single beep or a night time profiles where email/SMS don't ring but calls still do (so you are still accessable in an emergency). Sure you can manually go into settings and change all those one by one each time, but even your brick phone has profiles).
-no homescreen showing upcoming meetings/tasks/weather/etc (sure not all phones have that, but all smartphones do, all phones intended for business use do. It is quite a nuicance having to check 4 different things when they are the first things you should see when you look at your phone, and this causes the potential for missed appointments or tasks)
-No ability to attach a picture to an email once that email already exists (ie, if you start typing an email and then realize you want to attach a picture you need to delete the email, attach the picture and then retype everything. Or if you want to reply to someone elses email with a picture you can't you need to start a whole new email, attach the picture, address it to them, and then explain to them why you are sending them this picture when the explanation would no doubt have not been needed if you could have just replied to the last email)
-no ability to attach more than one picture to an email (if you need to send six pictures to someone you need to send them six seperate emails)

This is just a very small list of some of the things the iPhone can't do, they just happen to be the ones that annoy me the most (the other ones you mentioned don't bother me at all). I could list many more if I had the time.

However here's the thing, Apple designed a phone that they wanted to me as simple as possible so anyone coils pick it up and use it right away. They designed it to appeal to the broadest possible range of users (I use my phone largely for business use, they certainly didn't design the iPhone for me). The average user LOVES their iPhone. There is a reason the iPhone is By Far the best selling phone in North America. If it had everything that you and I want then it would be too complex and they would run the risk or overwhelming the average user and therefore decreasing sales. I personally feel (and no doubt you would agree) they in trying to make a nice elegantly simply device they made it too simple, but I highly doubt Apple is going to risk alienating their main market to make you or I happy.

Every phone manufacturer in the world is trying to design the "iPhone killer" that has to tell you something.

P.S. I am writing this on my iPhone.

I beleive Brian was specifically refering to a stock iPhone with no apps installed and not jailbroken, but yes you are correct there are apps available through the apps store that increase the functionallity of the iPhone. And, as you said, if you jailbreak it there are tons more even better apps.

Speaking of apps, my absolute favourite is Intelliscreen. It allows you to show your upcoming appointments, weather, SMS, Email, news, sports, etc all on your homescreen. Check here for more info http://www.intelliborn.com/ I highly recommend it.