People have been lined up for days waiting to be among the first to buy Apple’s iPhone, which officially goes on sale at 6:00pm tonight.

Rest assured that I am not one of them. While I like the look of the phone and am sure that the cool factor is through the roof when you actually use one, there are two reasons why the Mac-like gadget is not in my future.

First, there’s that little thing known as cost. The phone costs between $500 to $600. Is it worth it? Who knows: if you want everything it offers and can afford such a price, then it probably is. For the rest of us, that’s a steep price. (And Apple isn’t the kind of company that offers huge drops in price over time, either.)

And that’s only the beginning. The new AT&T — so far, I prefer the old one — wants a two-year committment with service running anywhere from $60 to $100 a month. What?

I recently had my cell phone number changed to a local number here in the Lowcountry. To change the number, Verizon automatically renewed my contract for two more years. I’m sure we’ll reach a point where a call to your cell phone carrier’s 411 service will increase the term of your contract by at least a year. The difference is that my phone was essentially free and that my monthly cost is about $49. That, to me, is entirely too high.

Then there is my second objection to such a device.

How much do you really need to do with a cell phone? Sure, mine has a little calendar/reminder function, which I use. It has a built-in digital camera, which I have used occasionally. It has text messaging, which I don’t use. It has email, which I wouldn’t think of trying to use on a cell phone. It has internet, which is annoying enough on a full-sized computer.

I’m one of those purists: I prefer to watch TV on a television, to make calls on a phone, and to handle surfing and email on a computer. Putting everything into one may be convenient, but I don’t think it’s necessary, especially for that high a price. And as we’ve all learned from Mr. Murphy, if something can go wrong, it will. With technology, if something can go wrong, it will in a big way!

Just imagine the possibilities.

I’m a Mac guy…always have been. Not because I think that PCs are so bad, but they aren’t as user-friendly. And just yesterday at work, the PC I was working on gave me the “blue screen of death.” My Mac doesn’t treat me that way.

But that doesn’t mean that I want everything in my life to act like a Mac. Or to cost what a Mac costs.

If you’re one of those lunatics enthusiasts who have been losing sleep until you can have an iPhone of your own, I wish you success today. You might need it.