Photo: Electronic Arts

On Monday, nearly two weeks after Electronic Arts (ERTS) confirmed its imminent arrival, the iPhone version of Rock Band -- one of the most successful video game franchises of recent years -- showed up on Apple's (AAPL) iTunes App Store to mixed reviews. (App Store link here.)

The lion's share of the first 40 messages on the App Store were one-line positives: "Amazing." "Awesome!" "Saaaaweeeeeett!"

But the longer, more thoughtful -- and more useful -- reviews were less kind. The main complaints seemed to be that it was too expensive ($9.99), too easy (lacking an "extreme" level), and that some of the advanced features, such as multi-user play over Bluetooth, didn't work as advertised.

The big problem, however, is that the program is 15 months too late.

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