It’s not because it’s Apple.
I’ve been reading and thinking about the iPhone a lot lately. I’m coming up on needing to upgrade my aging, failing, but fantastic T-Mobile MDA. I’ve been fascinated by the features and simplicity of the iPhone that has, of course, been the center of mobile tech hype for months now.
The reasons are simple and have little to do with the iPhone itself. Here they are.
- Not T-Mobile This is a big deal for me, I’m not going to change my number over – all my family and friends are on T-Mobile and my calls to them are all out of the unlimited "mobile to mobile" pool that doesn’t cost me a dime extra.
- No WMA support. Yep, 18 months ago I converted our entire library of tunes to WMA. I’m not going to do it again. I had to pick and there were upcoming WMA players at the time, my Pocket PCs were my player and new Nokia’s are compatible with the Windows Media Player sync tool.
- Software I have literally hundreds of dollars of software that is designed for Windows Mobile. I’m not going to through that away just for because I got a new mobile device. I am glad that I bought only Bluetooth hardware accessories though – that move has paid off big time.
- 3G Yeah, you who know will point out that T-Mobile doesn’t even have a 3G service for their customers (it’s in deployment/testing yet), so I shouldn’t bring up the lack of 3G in the iPhone. Fine I won’t. But other devices on the market have had long experience with 3G implementation, so I won’t loose sleep over that.
- Keyboard I’ve often scoffed at the keyboard on the face of the BlackBerry for a long time, but they are very handy to craft messages. My beloved MDA had a sliding keyboard, which I would buy again, but having one on the front of the device would be nice in several ways.
- Control I must have control of the device. From the selection of the firmware to software to the network settings. Traits from being a true techno geek. I know how the devices work and I can create a better configuration for my work/usage habits than anyone else can for me.
Well I can’t think of any other things at this point, and this is not to crap on the iPhone. I really do want one, compared to my initial reaction when it was released. The device is indeed an advance in design, engineering, interface and usability. It’s just not on my list this year when I go shopping for a new device.
What will I be looking for? Probably going to be another Windows Mobile device. Will need to support 3G HSDPA, all the usual wireless support, keyboard, good camera (3MP or better), video capabilities (record and playback), sync with WMP, more memory and a faster processor…
What’s your take – should a person switch carriers just for a hyped (albeit good) device?
