Why I won’t be getting an iPhone

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I’ve been thinking about the iPhone a lot. The new commercials are extremely hot, and really show off what’s great about the iPhone – the interface and the design. But I’m still not convinced, and I’m not planning on buying one.

Here’s what kills me. People are acting like the fact that the iPhone is limited to 2G/EDGE/~120Kbps speeds is a limitation of AT&T/Cingular’s network. It’s NOT .

They have a perfectly functional, nationwide, faster-than-EVDO, UMTS and HSDPA 3G network in place. They have for months. I know, because I use it every day. So does everyone who has an HTC 8525 or Samsung Blackjack phone (among others).

I’m a wireless data junkie – I could care less about the voice network. A few years ago, I jumped ship from T-Mobile as a 7 year customer to Verizon, because EVDO was so fast (I averaged prolly 600Kbps), and T-Mobile was stuck on GPRS (hadn’t even upgraded to slow EDGE yet). Then, earlier this year, I dumped Verizon EVDO for Cingular HSDPA because Cingular/AT&T IS FASTER – I average about 850Kbps, and regularly test at over 1Mbps. And HSDPA/UMTS is backwards compatible, so on the (very) rare occasion I’m in a city with no 3G HSDPA/UMTS, it simply falls back to EDGE. No problem.

So it REALLY turns me off that there’s no 3G in the iPhone. The network is there. It’s backwards compatible. It’s fast. It works. Apple is even talking about integrating 3G into their next gen laptops, while LEAVING IT OUT OF THEIR CELL PHONE.

That’s just messed up Steve Jobs reasoning right there, and it’s the main reason (along with the fact that it won’t sync with Exchange/Outlook over the air) that I won’t be picking up an iPhone. I don’t deny that they’re sexy to death. I don’t doubt they’ll sell like hotcakes, and make millions for Apple. But my expectations are higher, and until they’re met, Steve gets no iPhone money from me.

grump

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  • http://www.techcraver.com Jason

    good reasons…but in all honesty I don’t think you’re the target market for the iPhone. You (and I as well) are a geek(s). You use Windows Mobile and are very comfortable in it.

    iPhone is aimed at people who want to do mobile web/media stuff but are scared by the devices that exist now that scare the crap out of them. My in-laws are the target audience. They want to get google maps but they don’t want to invest countless hours to learn how to use a Windows mobile device. They want it to ‘just work’. This is opposite a geek who wants to wants to tinker and max it out.

    When the iPod came out there were portable mp3 players. But they were hard to use, ugly, and non-functional. With iTunes and the iPod, apple introduced something that was an easy alternative. 1 click and boom you have your song and it’s automatically pushed to the iPod (if you had it hooked up).

    my .02 :)

  • IntelWife

    My husband has an 8525 and loves it and suits his needs. The I Phone is not suited to what he does with it on a daily basis. I agree with your comments. Apple missed the boat on this. Maybe the next version will be more compatible. Time will tell. I can get one, but why? Just to say that I have one? At that price? Showy at best, and why do that, just because I can? I already have an Ipod, I don’t need to spend any more extraneous cash for something that is first generation. Let someone else learn the lessons. I’ll sit back and wait.

  • http://phonyholmes.com Rodfather

    I won’t be getting one either. I want one as a media player, but I don’t want to be sucked into another 2 year plan and it’s a bit expensive.

    Also, I’m happy with my Blackjack phone My absolute favorite features are that I can sync my contacts, mail, calendar, and pics with my Yahoo account; and more importantly, I was able to purchase a 3rd party app that lets me sync to my work’s Oracle calendar server. This is huge. I don’t have to plug in my phone into the computer to sync anything. Everything is handles through the data connection. It’s also way cool using shozu to send pics and videos to flickr/youtube.. Convu’s pocketcaster to stream video live (ala justin.tv).. Having the choice between Google Maps and Windows Live Search..

    3rd party apps are key to me. So seeing that the iPhone is a closed system, it’s not practical for me.

    As a kick ass media player that’s also a phone & web browser, I wouldn’t complain if it were given to me.

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  • Harold

    could you provide the 3rd party app to sync blackjack 2 with oracle calndar