Joshua Ochs, in a comment to the article “iPhone for Newbies: Honey, I shrunk the manual” on TUAW:
Do you sit down and read the manual, or refer to it when you need help? If it’s the latter, online resources – whether included help or googling – would serve you far better. And for a device like the iPhone, there’s no argument that you don’t have online access. If it’s the former, then it’s a sign of an especially bad user interface. If the program needs a manual, I consider it poorly designed from the outset. The last manual I used was for Microsoft Word 6.0, and if that doesn’t say something about both manuals and Word 6, I don’t know what does.
“duane robinson” offers a better solution:
Most users do not realize that the manual is also saved as a bookmark for your convenience in Safari. It is called the User Guide and it is a very handy web app. For even more convenience you can save it as a web clip and access it any time right from the face of the phone.