The good doctor over at Macenstein writes an interesting editorial about how, despite his love for all things Apple, he let out a small cheer at the news that the iPhone sales had fallen short of predictions.  Now before you holster up your pitchforks and lead a baying mob over there, let the man speak:

“I am an iPhone user. I love my iPhone. I love everything it does. The problem? I want it to do more. And I want it to do it yesterday. And apparently, so do a lot of people who are holding off buying one”

He goes on to lay out three possible courses of action that Apple may take, including the unlikely (for now) prospect of dropping the price by $100, and – unlike many whining commentators – actually puts forward some suggestions of how Apple could turn all this to its advantage.

It’s true to say that the first-gen iPhone didn’t satisfy everyone.  While some of the features are remarkable, some of the omissions are equally unbelievable: MMS picture messaging, for instance.  Yet the common theme is that the headline grabbing tech – Multi-Touch, Mobile Safari and its outstanding page rendering – is all in place, and it would simply require moderate upgrades to introduce the fallen-by-the-wayside functionality.  If the handset had been closer to perfection, improving it would have been made ten times harder; that’s great for customers, but a difficult task for a company building their first ever cellphone.