Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, in an interview about the iPhone 3G:

I think people have tried to build a $100 laptop, and here is a $200 phone that can do all that over 3G.

Uh-huh.

It’s just like the “$100 laptop”! Except not rugged, with a tiny screen sans dedicated reading mode, without a reasonable prolonged-use input device, with a $100 fee for a software development certificate, without USB ports or a video camera, with a prohibition on interpreted software and a by-design inability to share software due to DRM, and requiring wi-fi access points or expensive 3G GSM infrastructure to communicate.

And, um, with a $200 retail price after massive subsidy by AT&T which attaches it to a mandatory two thousand dollar contract.

Good call, Ralph.