I am so anxious for the iPhone I decided to start fixing some issues I've got/think I'll have if I get the iPhone. While I know there is little known about the iPhone so far in advance as far as details but I know it will handle calendar and contacts. What standards are in place for calendar and contacts? I wish there could be a new standard, IMAP2 or something which would automatically include all those extras that people without Microsoft Exchange Server have been needing. It could include by default data storage for lots of other types of data such as contacts, calendar, tasks, and just general settings files which phones and email programs could write to (and read from) which would basically store all your customizable email stuff like signature, etc.
My biggest concern is that I really have no desktop calendar application at the moment. It's really tricky for me. I have my iPaq HX4700 with Pocket Informant and that works quite nicely but it leaves a lot to be desired. I have no way to sync anything since I don't use Outlook.
Also, to make matters worse, I don't and probably never will use iTunes. I use J River Media Center with FLAC audio files which I have re-encoded on sync. iTunes doesn't even touch FLAC that I know. Plus, iTunes lacks so many features I demand in my media app. I'm sure Media Center will be able to sync my media with the iPhone but what about the Contacts, Calendar, Tasks? iTunes is what is intended to sync.
Could Media Center have additional sync features built in for the iPhone? It could be a HOT product just like the iPods so I wouldn't doubt it. I use Thunderbird for email but there is no issue there. IMAP doesn't require syncing! If only we had a contacts/calendar/tasks system as EFFICIENT and amazing as IMAP, you wouldn't need syncing either because it would just access your data from the server. We all know the benefits of media or any data for that matter being in one place and then access from all over. It eliminates the need for syncing.