Matt_OCENS
Observer
I think it's still not available...which should be reason enough to stay away. Fail. They'll get the iPhone 5 version out about the time the iPhone 6 hits. Kinda a hassle for something a cheapo bluetooth attachment should handle, contacts and voice. You could either just get a sat phone or, if you want connectivity with a smartphone, the DeLorme InReach Smartphone that works with either iOS or Android, and offers some GPS capabilities, and is on the Iridium system.
Yes, AT&T attempted a smartphone - satellite phone hybrid with TerreStar and it was a failure. Any of the handheld satellite phones will handle standard SMS messaging as well as SMS to email out of the box. The problem with trying to get smartphone level data capabilities out of a satellite phone is the connection speeds. With Iridium, you are limited to 2.4kbps and Globalstar provides 9.6k. This is not enough to handle what we are used to on regular 3G/4G networks, however there are plenty of people taking advantage of the data service that the satellite phones provide for emailing when used in conjunction with a compressed email service.