Even Macworld is questioning the iPhone 3G pricing!

It's starting to seem like piling on when even the Mac-heads at Macworld are asking impertinent questions about the iPhone 3G service costs:

Nothing stirs the imagination like an major Apple product update such as the iPhone 3G. Weeks before its July 11 release date, people will talk excitedly about its new features, thrill to its touted benefits, and dream of the day they can finally hold one in their hands. Very little, it seems, can dim people's enthusiasm.

Until the pricing information gets released, and the cold, hard sting of dollars and cents sets in.

AT&T released its rate plans for the iPhone 3G this week. The plans are essentially US$10 higher than existing iPhone plans, and text messaging is no longer included. Messaging rates start at $5 per month for 200 messages and go up to $20 a month for unlimited texting. Or you can pay as you go, at a rate of 20 cents for each text message. The end result — even though the iPhone 3G costs less than its predecessor, you'll wind up paying more in service charges over the life of your two-year contract with AT&T.

Those figures caused a few of us around the Macworld offices to pause from our anticipatory iPhone 3G yearnings and take stock: Are the changes promised by the latest iPhone worth the higher service plan rates. Below, you'll find two arguments — one from an editor who's had second thoughts and another from one who's as gung-ho about the iPhone 3G as ever.

Fascinating. Even the most die-hard Apple fans are balking at paying the anticipated higher costs for the newest, coolest iPhone. Could it possibly be that Apple and their various partners are over-estimating the traction that "cool new toy" can get against "hard economic reality"?

To recap: I'm following this story because I was toying with the idea of buying an iPhone 3G, but the announced costs from Rogers (the only Canadian firm handling the iPhone) are making me reconsider whether I'd be better off sticking with my Treo 600 . . . especially as Bell Mobility has improved their own data offerings since I last checked them out. Because I lost my cell phone soon after renewing my Bell contract, I ended up paying a lot for my current Treo, so if I can keep it going for a few more years, it'd probably be the wiser economic choice.

I've never actually bought an Apple product before, although I've occasionally used them at work. In no way was I looking at the iPhone as a "have-to-have" purchase . . . perhaps I'm not alone in this.