Justification ....

It all started with old, nasty PowerMacs that were used only for high school publications projects. Sure, they were the only computers that we could run Photoshop and PageMaker on, but they were also beasts when it came to trying to network them or connect them to the internet.

When iPods first came out, I laughed at them. They were huge in capacity, but they also looked clunk. They also had an outrageous price tag that made me very content with my Diamond Rio (the first MP3 player).

After my Rio, I still avoided buying Apple MP3 products, instead buying products from other companies including Rio, Creative, Archos, and Cowon. Byt he time of the Archos and the Cowon, iPod had become synonymous with portable MP3, but I still avoided them because a) I didn't want to be tethered to iTunes (which sucked on PCs) and b) I felt that the other companies put out superior products for the money (sound quality, capabilities, etc).

Things started to break down when I bought an iPod shuffle. Sure it was only 512 MB (my first Rio was 128 MB), but it also provided long, reliable play with decent quality. After that, I purchased an iPod Touch, then an iPod Nano. While I'm not sure that Apple necessarily deserves the reputation it has over other companies, I have to admit that Apple does excel at the one thing they are famous for ... user interface. I also purchased a MacBook after a string of failures with "cheap" PC laptops.

OK ... you might be wondering where this is going. In reality, I'm trying to write enough to justify the posting. Here's the real meat:

I just ordered an iPhone.