Some sobering words on the iPhone -- and new media

In a blog on InfoWorld, Bill Snyder offers some sobering words on the iPhone that carry over, I think, to other new media. He writes that the biggest problem hitting the iPhone is limited bandwidth by the telecommunications companies (especially AT&T), which, he writes, aren't allowing the iPhone to reach anywhere near its potential. One staggering observation is that the U.S. ranks about 12th in average broadband connection speed worldwide, but first in cost. Along with recent moves by cable companies to limit or charge more for broadband usage, it means that no matter how effective the hardware and software developed for the new media, it's dependent on the monopolistic telecom system that's been allowed to reform in the U.S. in the past few years -- a system that's very unresponsive to its consumers, I believe.