The iPhone: Turning a missing feature into a hype machine

There's a lot of buzz about the next version of the iPhone, and frankly, it's been that way since shortly after the phone launched. The word, or more precisely number and letter, on everyone's mind is 3G. Yes, 3G. You would think it was the savior of cell phone users everywhere. Curiously, a year ago, most of the country probably hadn't heard of 3G. Yet a year later, it's the must-have feature for the next version of the iPhone. Which got me thinking: what if the iPhone had 3G to begin with? What would we all be talking about now?

Apple has a knack for (whether by design or not) leaving off a feature, or neglecting to add a feature, and then the lack of that feature actually fuels sales and even more talk about the product. Think back to a time when the iPod didn't do video. The buzz reached fever pitch after the iPod Photo. Everyone was suddenly concerned with when would the iPod play video. So here we are again. If the iPhone had 3G from the start, would rumor sites be buzzing about text copy & paste? (another missing feature) or perhaps an iChat client? It's doubtful these kinds of rumors would fuel the tech blogs the way the lack and perceived need of 3G on the phone has.

3G will not make the phone thinner, lighter, give it longer battery life, or make the UI more intuitive. It won't let you copy and paste text, record voice memos, or easily create ringtones. What it does do is provide fuel for the blogger fire for an entire year.

So what do you think? If the iPhone has 3G networking from the beginning, what would everyone be getting ready for now? Do you think Apple deliberately leaves off features to build hype, or are the media/bloggers to blame/credit?