What the future holds for prospective smartphone buyers: Google’s Android–if devs can fix bugs and Google can find a decent carrier

-Sprint Mobile WiMax expected in Washington, DC and Chicago for April 2008, although who knows if Xohm is going anywhere given Sprint’s new management and financial woes

-Windows Mobile 6.1 and 7.0: Microsoft is set to release two new versions of its mobile OS, with many features touted as competitive with the iPhone including a browser claimed to rival Safari

Verizon’s “breadboard” pledge: if VZW lives up to the hype, for all we know there could literally be dozens of innovative phones from upstart East Asian manufacturers by July

The iPhone’s key deficiencies:

-No HSDPA/UMTS. EDGE is slow compared to HSDPA, and painfully sluggish compared to EVDO Rev.A (which Sprint, and to a lesser extent Verizon, is rolling out swiftly) Steve Jobs says 3G drains too much battery life, but nearly every other smartphone released in the past year has managed to work with 3G without battery life concerns. Where available, Wi-Fi is a faster substitute to 3G, but dealing with the hassles of hotspots, SSIDs, encryption, security, etc is no match for a single unified wireless broadband data plan.

-No removable memory. Now that MicroSDHC cards with 4GB of capacity can be had for under $50, there’s no excuse for a multimedia phone to lack expansion capabilities.

-No keypad. While iPhone users generally seem very happy with the touch-screen keyboard, having a real keypad as an alternative is nice, even with the added weight and cost.

-No Interchangeable Battery. Lithium Ion batteries can and do degrade noticeably in just one year of heavy use and lots of recharge cycles, but Apple makes it difficult to change the battery without risking voiding the warranty or ponying up extra cash to Apple. Plus, for users who are on the road a lot carrying a backup battery is a nice option to have when plugging in a charger isn’t always feasible.

-This isn’t really a deficiency, but Apple takes $18/month from AT&T from your monthly bill, so that $400 iPhone actually transfers $832 from your wallet to Apple’s over the two-year contract.

The hardest thing to find in a phone, aside from a good browser, is a high resolution screen. The iPhone looks so great not just because of its large screen but because of its unusually high resolution of 480×320. The LG Voyager’s 400×240 is decent, but the screen size is 0.7” smaller and the UI/Browser is much worse while it’s equally expensive. Sprint’s HTC Touch looks nice, but 320×240 is weak and the Browser is not good enough. Also the UI isn’t nearly as refined as the iPhone’s. All those BlackBerry/Treo corporate-style smartphones have small squarish screens that are poorly suited for users intent on browsing, or watching TV shows and movies. At least 3 inches diagonal is crucial to make the portable vieweing experience worthwhile (whenever I see somebody watching a TV show on a gen-1 iPod video, I can’t help but wonder how its possible to enjoy watching videos on such a tiny 320×240 screen.)

I’d look into the HP iPaq. $500 or so with a 4” 640×480 touchscreen. I’m not sure which versions support 3G, though.

Opera Mini 4 is a great Java Virtual Machine-based browser for Windows Mobile or Palm OS. Future versions of Opera Mini are likely to offer Safari-level usability.

So if you can’t wait to get a feature phone, just go with the iPhone. Despite some big drawbacks, it is still a solid value proposition—unlike Apple’s iPod line. There can be no doubt the iPhone actually does offer many more features to the tech-savvy user than its competitors, and it is likely to remain at the forefront of innovation for at least a few more months, which is actually pretty good given the breakneck pace of technological evolution.

What the future holds for prospective smartphone
buyers: Google’s Android–if devs can fix bugs
and Google can find a decent carrier

-Sprint Mobile WiMax expected in
Washington, DC and Chicago for April 2008, although who knows if Xohm is going anywhere given Sprint’s new
management and financial woes

-Windows Mobile 6.1 and 7.0: Microsoft is set to release two
new versions of its mobile OS, with many features touted as competitive with
the iPhone including a
browser claimed to rival Safari

Verizon’s “breadboard” pledge: if
VZW lives up to the hype, for all we know there could literally be dozens
of innovative phones from upstart East Asian manufacturers by July

The iPhone’s key deficiencies:

-No HSDPA/UMTS. EDGE is slow compared to HSDPA, and painfully
sluggish compared to EVDO Rev.A (which Sprint, and to
a lesser extent Verizon, is rolling out swiftly)
Steve Jobs says 3G drains
too much battery life, but nearly every other smartphone released in the past year has managed to work with 3G without battery life
concerns. Where available, Wi-Fi is a faster substitute
to 3G, but dealing with the hassles of hotspots, SSIDs,
encryption, security, etc is no match for a single unified wireless broadband data
plan.

-No removable memory. Now that MicroSDHC
cards with 4GB of capacity can be had for under
$50, there’s no excuse for a multimedia phone to lack expansion
capabilities.

-No keypad. While iPhone users
generally seem very happy with the touch-screen keyboard, having a real keypad as
an alternative is nice, even with the added weight and cost.

-No Interchangeable Battery. Lithium
Ion batteries can and do degrade noticeably in just one year of heavy use and
lots of recharge cycles, but Apple makes it difficult to change the battery
without risking voiding the warranty or ponying up extra cash to Apple. Plus, for users who are on the road a lot carrying a
backup battery is a nice option to have when plugging in a charger isn’t always
feasible.

-This isn’t really a deficiency, but Apple takes $18/month from AT&T; from your monthly bill, so that $400 iPhone
actually transfers
$832 from your wallet to Apple’s over the two-year contract.

The hardest thing to find in a phone, aside from a good
browser, is a high resolution screen. The iPhone
looks so great not just because of its large screen but because of its
unusually high resolution of 480×320. The LG Voyager’s 400×240 is decent, but
the screen size is 0.7” smaller and the UI/Browser is much worse while it’s equally
expensive. Sprint’s HTC Touch looks nice, but 320×240 is weak and the Browser
is not good enough. Also the UI isn’t nearly as refined as the iPhone’s. All those BlackBerry/Treo
corporate-style smartphones have small squarish screens that are poorly suited for users intent on browsing, or watching TV shows and movies. At
least 3 inches diagonal is crucial to make the portable vieweing
experience worthwhile (whenever I see somebody watching a TV show on a gen-1 iPod video, I can’t help but wonder how its
possible to enjoy watching videos on such a tiny 320×240 screen.)

I’d look into the HP iPaq. $500 or so with a 4” 640×480 touchscreen.
I’m not sure which versions support 3G, though.

Opera Mini 4 is a great Java Virtual Machine-based browser
for Windows Mobile or Palm OS. Future versions of Opera Mini are likely to
offer Safari-level usability.

So if you can’t wait to get a feature phone, just go with the
iPhone. Despite some big drawbacks, it is still a
solid value proposition—unlike Apple’s iPod line. There
can be no doubt the iPhone actually does offer many
more features to the tech-savvy user than its competitors, and it is likely to
remain at the forefront of innovation for at least a few more months, which is
actually pretty good given the breakneck pace of technological evolution.

I think I’m going to have to get my hands on a BB to play with. Ultimately I think it’s going to boil down to UI factors. The BB will need to be pretty impressive to overcome my iPhone lust, but it sounds like it’s worth at least checking out before deciding. Thanks again.

The browser is a little better than Safari for text and in all other respects it is worse, the basic look and feel is java phone with some optimizations. I actually prefer the mainly text interface, although with the iPhone’s screen that might be less the case. There are little things though, like being able to navigate and use the device with a cup of coffee in the other hand, that I would have trouble giving up. Access to web services is OK, I can’t seem to download any big media files directly. There is no flash. I had to toggle a few options to install some 3rd-party applications that use network data connections, like (no-longer-necessary) gcalsync and MidpSSH. All of this is on the $20 unlimited plan, which is as good as I suppose EDGE can be. Also, you can use wifi at t-mobile hotspots, and there is some way to tether that to a laptop, but I am in the relative wireless and coffee paradise of San Francisco and haven’t needed to.

The media player is also no iPod, it comes with something called roxio, but I just use some little python scripts to manage podcasts.

My only basis for comparison is limited use of my mother’s iPhone, which she loves and I also think is great. At a minimum you can think of this comment thread as part of your due diligence on the way to the apple store Look forward to reading about how it goes either way.

Also, how good is the browser on the Curve? I think the thing that most attracts me to the iPhone is that it’s the first phone that has a large/dense/bright enough screen and a slick enough UI that I can actually imagine using it as a browser without getting a headache.

Thanks again!

I am tempted by the iPhone, and the Apple user experience tends to be great, but the Blackberry qua information appliance is just amazing. It also seems wrong for the WiFi chip not to be enlisted in support of the main function of the phone, so that you can be gouged more deeply by Apple’s partners. (Even a gizmo client and forwarding via grandcentral or some such would be a fair compromise.)

Do put some thought into it, this is the first year phones have been available that really can often substitute for laptops, and inspire the same degree of devotion

Take a look at the N-Series and E-Series phones from Nokia, or any of the huge number of Windows Mobile phones on the market. All of these will do what the iPhone does and a whole lot more, and you won’t be restricted to a certain cellular provider.

Either way I’m sure you’ll be pleased with it