Now, iPhone 3G can read the iWork and MS office files. Therefore, we can infer that a universal files management such as Finder will be included in the next update. Or, may be not.
iPhone software is OS X Leopard line by line, as Scott Forstall has said. It does not mean it works like OS X. Apple locked down the files system on iPhone. Hackers since have accessed to the files system and detail here: "How to Escape Jail". To a typical user, the OS X file system is non-existing.
But iPhone is an app-centric piece of device, the data we create is managing by the app itself. We have no need to worry where the data are, they're simply there once the icon is pressed. Music is in the iPod app, My picture in the photo app. Life is simple.
Wrong! when you can send pdf and other files to your iPhone via email, files are conveniently staying in the mail — ad hoc solution to a closed file system. In a closed system, the users are restricted from direct access to the directory. Not to say, the beautiful app like Finder let you do so.
iPhone file system may be closed for good reasons. There is no need to manage the files, Afterall it is a phone. Look at the cluttered menus of ordinary screen or the many steps copying in today's mobile phone, it turns you off. Phone viruses would not be a problem too. Apple people just do not have time to think through how to implement a Finder yet. Let's update the feature in the 2.1, just like the mass email deletion. A Finder may come in software update 2.3, or may be not.
An important fact is that iPhone is capable of reading PDF or DOC. This capability is transparent to users. You don't need an app installed to do that. Just like its counter part OS X Leopard, Finder can read many common files (format). Email is the app to read the PDF, DOC and so on. It was so convenient and matter of fact that external file must come via a channel – in Steve Jobs mind – it must be email. Therefore, it has no MMS, IRC cannot transfer file. No place for you to download and save a file linked to a webpage.
To the end, it is about control. Apple's control over the device, not user's control over his or her files.
The question remains to the people who is so used to the desktop computing metaphor – where is my file, I like to save it to a location I can remember. No doubt, the metaphor work so well. where is my folder ?