Once again I feel duped by AT&T and to some extent Apple, but I never believed that MMS and/or tethering would be on the iPhone by the end of Summer, “No way in Hell”.

Well, time is ticking. The end of Summer to me and to most people is the end of August and I can guarantee MMS will not work on my iPhone before midnight tonight.

We absolutely will offer MMS on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G with 3.0 upgrades in late summer, once we complete some system upgrades that will ensure our customers have the best experience with MMS,”

an AT&T representative said in a statement cited by Wired.

Why does AT&T keep stumbling with the iPhone? I happen to think they’re over promising simply to try and make Apple as happy as possible because they know their cash-cow contract with the fruit company expires in 2010.

I continue to contemplate switching phones and to a new carrier. I’m currently playing with a Blackberry 8900 and a T-Mobile myTouch 3G (still waiting for the HTC unlock code) and I can honestly say the iPhone is a better device.

Yes, I have a cool phone that does a lot of neat things, but it doesn’t do one simple thing that mankind has done since the beginning of time — share pictures — and that is finally not the phone’s fault.