I have warned - until most people must think I am some kind of a Jihadist - that the iPhone and now the new iPad (two million and counting) are The Devil's Instruments.
And it seems that Mr Jobs just might be the devil himself. Or at least his friends at AT&T are.
So the announcement by AT&T yesterday that it is introducing a new data plan for iPhone and will abolish the unlimited data program can best be described as confirmation of my ardent beliefs.
True (mercifully) the plan lowers the cost for the majority of AT&T users - but for heavy users like me (potentially, if I was so inclined) this could represent a disaster.
And, equally, this puts the idea of mobile web browsing-based travel applications and content under more scrutiny.
According to an AT&T spokesman, the new cap is 2GB per month. The company argues that since 98% of their users fall below that level, it's OK.
As of June 2009, the number of iPhone OS-powered devices sold in the US had exceeded 25 million - that number has, using a conservative estimate, now doubled.
So for the more than one million heavy users this could be a bit of a shock. And this latest development comes just in time for the release of iPhone 4.0, with the new multi-tasking OS.
I suspect there will be a lot of unhappy people when their bills arrive in July.
Why would this have an impact? Simple – multi-tasking will increase your data usage significantly, meaning they will find they are exceeding their data plans easily and quickly.
This scenario is not unlike that which affects the poor iPhone suckers who forget to turn off data when they travel.
Meanwhile, those people who have an iPhone 3G or older will not be able to upgrade to the new OS, and thus will have to buy a NEW iPhone. (Yes all you people who thought you had a deal buying up those old 3G devices at $99).
There will be tears!
For reference: my average PC data consummation is 500MB (I have a little monitor that tells me that every day).