[dingbow2408]

Dude, no one said apps from the Apple store is free (though some are). Pre's app store only has like 20 apps, whoopee! No one has mentioned that multitasking on the Pre can be butt slow, depending on what's app, and how many is running the background.

PCWorld is consistent in saying Apple products are better, because they consistently PROVE to be better, and worth their value, even at a higher price. Its like being pissed at Motortrend magazine for saying a KIA is a better car than a Lexus.

I'll admit it, I still got the lowly first generation iPhone because I can't afford to upgrade right now (the only Apple thing I got). Many new Pre owners got it because they didn't want to switch from Sprint, couldn't afford AT&T prices, NOT because they didn't want an iPhone, or an Apple product. People love to defend what they're stuck with, or comfortable with, to make themselves feel better, buyers remorse is a bitch. Come clean, Man. You're clinging on to your devices because you just can't afford anything better. LOL.

[dingbow2408]

Thanks, and well said. This is honesty. No proclaiming Apple products suck or Pre is better, has multitasking, better app store... whatever. The majority of people's decisions will be based on what they can afford and/or what carrier that are stuck with, what their carrier have on the shelf that best meets their needs, most importantly, what carrier has the best service in their area. Really now, if a carrier's service stinks in your area, how could you be happy with ANY phone?

[zbeast9]

what this fails to mention is software capability. The webOS can do what the iphone can do and a lot more in terms of multitasking and synergy. Palm Pre FTW

[qingwa]

I think the Pre is way overhyped by the media just to sell articles.

If you look at it from a purely business standpoint, Palm has a difficult road ahead. They are competing with Google (Android), Microsoft (Windows Mobile), Apple (iPhone OS), RIM (Blackberry) and Nokia for developers for their platform.

A smartphone is more than an internet, clock and a calender. Its kind of like a laptop if I can use that analogy. No one will buy a laptop with no programs, similarly people will not seek to adopt a smartphone with no apps. A smartphone with no apps has little added utility beyond a feature phone.

With the Pre having only 30 apps, and the smallest established base of users (estimated around 150,000) competing against tens of millions established users on the iPhone and Blackberry and millions of users on Android already, developers will not be running over themselves to spend venture capital money on the smallest platform base supported by the least financially stable company (Palm).

Palm as you may know had a stock price of less than $2 before the Pre announcement and had to get a $450 million dollar capital injection from Bono (of U2) to save the company.

Consumers should look at the big picture, not running after the newest gadget. Look at what happened to the format HDDVD, Blu-ray won. The market can support 3-5 smartphone platforms, I don't think there are enough developers that it can support 6 (Android, iPhone, Windows, RIM, Symbian, WebOS).

In several years time, 1-2 of the smartphone platforms will go under due to lack of developer support. If you look at computers, the general public can only support two platforms, Windows and Mac OS. If you look at gaming systems, there are only 3 platforms. There are simply not enough developers, especially as these apps get more intensive and more difficult to program.

[dingbow2408]

Fantastic post "qingwa", thank you! It makes complete sense. I will have to go with my gut instinct and with the research I've done thus far. I think with my service contract up, and the luxury of exploring other cell phone platforms outside of the Blackberry's hideous OS, I'm certainly open to it all. Your post has definitely brought another valuable insight into the hunt. Considering that most contracts are two years, it is probably wise to look into the viability of various wireless communities that I might be living in. I've given myself 2 weeks for this quest (on day 8).

Making a point of playing with a friend's Palm Pre today. He seems to really enjoy it. Only complaint is that applications are not being release fast enough. Apparently some old PALM apps works using an emulator software that he has downloaded. He says many of the emulated running apps are very slow and often crashes. Standard PALM Pre apps are very stable.


Below is a list of general requirements for the next smartphone purchase. Pretty the usual stuff.

- Presently on AT&T
(Willing to switch. Service has been very reliable in Austin, TX. Definitely have heard about the complaints around the country - I only travel for business 2-3 times a year)
- Currently with a Sony Ericson W550
(Its slow but very fun phone. Brother's hand me down, after completely giving up on my Blackberry)
- Money no object, company allowance for my phone service.
- Don't require Security/Enterprise Solutions
(don't know why I got a damn Blackberry in the first place - all the business cloneys were doing it at the time)
- Don't play games on phone
- Speedy processor
- Would like GPS
- Video Player
- Music Player
- Comprehensive calendar/schedule app
- 3G wireless capable
- Camera - migapixel hasn't been an issue
- Video - would be nice but not required
- FM radio, neat but not required (Sony Ericson W550 has one, useful feature)
- MMS, SMS features
- Email (a given)
- Calculator (upgrade to a scientific one if possible, if not, I got standalone)
- Web browser
- Memory expandability - not required (still haven't met anyone that carries around an extra sims card)
- Hardrive - 8 Gigs (seems to be the general standard)
- Sync/backup with MAC or PC
- Application store environment
- Touch screen - not required but seems to be the rave
- Speakerphone
- Bluetooth - not required (probably a standard anyway)

Thank you for everyone's great input and insight!

[sneale2k]

1. I think the Pre is way overhyped by the media just to sell articles.

A. you must work for apple because all articles have been against the Pre
2. If you look at it from a purely business standpoint, Palm has a difficult road ahead. They are competing with Google (Android), Microsoft (Windows Mobile), Apple (iPhone OS), RIM (Blackberry) and Nokia for developers for their platform.

A. Android is too new to even be considered a business unit. Iphone is still mainly multimedia device and palm has always been a business device and the pre is very business like in every way.. here is an example: it can open and office file and can connect/sync with exchange
3. A smartphone is more than an internet, clock and a calender. Its kind of like a laptop if I can use that analogy. No one will buy a laptop with no programs, similarly people will not seek to adopt a smartphone with no apps. A smartphone with no apps has little added utility beyond a feature phone.

A. Im wondering how the business world adopted a phone that came out 2 years ago that had disgusting internet connection, no exchange sync, no copy and paste, no multi-tasking and most of all absolutely 0 apps for nearly 2 months.. the name of that device is IPHONE. The pre has 1000's of apps because you have a plugin called classic that allows you to use nearly every app that was made for original palm os's.

4. With the Pre having only 30 apps, and the smallest established base of users (estimated around 150,000) competing against tens of millions established users on the iPhone and Blackberry and millions of users on Android already, developers will not be running over themselves to spend venture capital money on the smallest platform base supported by the least financially stable company (Palm).

A. Developers always look for new platforms because people love to be new devices and when a new op exists, billions of dollars are waiting to be made. I have to wonder why anyone would fock to apple platform when windows mobile has over 18-20 million devices flooding the market yearly.

5. Palm as you may know had a stock price of less than $2 before the Pre announcement and had to get a $450 million dollar capital injection from Bono (of U2) to save the company.

A. Bono group bought 25% of Palm 3 years ago and if you remember correctly Bill Gates saved Apple from distinction because jobs begged Bill for 150 mil investment and make Office for their systems. The ingrate runs commercials against MS. Apples stock was worth pennies back then and the only reason it's worth so much now is because they never split their stock with only 800 mil in outstanding shares while MS has 9bil outstanding shares

6. Consumers should look at the big picture, not running after the newest gadget. Look at what happened to the format HDDVD, Blu-ray won. The market can support 3-5 smartphone platforms, I don't think there are enough developers that it can support 6 (Android, iPhone, Windows, RIM, Symbian, WebOS).

A. the market evolves as it has always done so. the palm os dominted the market for many years and palm laughed at MS when win CE came out. With over 18-20 million Licenses of WinMO sold yearly i dont think anyone is laughing at the market leader.

7. In several years time, 1-2 of the smartphone platforms will go under due to lack of developer support. If you look at computers, the general public can only support two platforms, Windows and Mac OS. If you look at gaming systems, there are only 3 platforms. There are simply not enough developers, especially as these apps get more intensive and more difficult to program.

Apple will be the first to lost developer support of money came into play because the don't allow any changes to their device as other do. Plus the majority of the apps only sell for 99 cents and they look like 12 year olds wrote them. I know this because i have an ipod touch. Plus apple hasn't changed the device for over 2 years and took 2 years to add copy and paste?



Plus Pre sold more in it's debut than the iphone. The iphone sold 270k in it's first weekend and the pre sold over 700k on a small network while the iphone is a gsm device that can be used anywhere around the world.



qingwa is completely misnformed or has misinformed anyone that has read his information

[qingwa]

I don't work for Apple, I'm a student.

Your points are not logical or you only look at certain facts without seeing the whole picture. The reason why the iPhone sold millions even though it had no app store and little business connectivity was that it was easy to use and finally brought the full internet to a phone. Prior to the iPhone, every phone, PDA or smartphone just showed a truncated/simplified web page. The fact the iPhone was an iPod also didn't hurt.

The Palm OS, Windows Mobile have tons of programs and applications because there were only several mass market platforms available 5 years ago. Now the smartphone market has exploded and there are 6 platforms. The competition is much fiercer with Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia and Apple trying to gain marketshare.

Plus Pre sold more in it's debut than the iphone. The iphone sold 270k in it's first weekend and the pre sold over 700k on a small network while the iphone is a gsm device that can be used anywhere around the world.

qingwa is completely misnformed or has misinformed anyone that has read his information

In fact your numbers are incorrect. Palm and Sprint have not supplied the number of Pre units sold. Estimates from analysts suggest between 100,000 to 200,000 units sold over the opening weekend for the $199 retail price of the Pre (after mail in rebate). Compare that to the opening weekend of the original 2G iPhone which sold either at $400 or $600 with no carrier subsidy, with 270,000 units sold (that number is correct).

If you doubt my numbers are correct, I ask you to please google the number of Pre units sold on opening week.

iPhone OS has sold around 40,000,000 units, Windows mobile has sold tens of millions of their OS on smartphones, Android is on over 1,000,000 units with more than 20 Android phones coming out this year, Nokia is the best selling phone company in the world, RIM produces Blackberry Curve which is the best selling smartphone in the US and the Pre... well they have sold about 200,000 units (now why won't Sprint or Palm release official numbers on how many they sold?? What are they trying to hide?). The Pre is CDMA and has only launched in one country so far, thats a bad way to compete in such a crowded field for attention from developers.

[dingbow2408]

After my frustration with the Blackberry OS, I was given a hand me down, iPhone (first generation 2G) to use. When the battery life became weak (2 year old unit), I was given an old Sony Ericson W550 to use (actually a very fun phone). Now that my contract is up at the end of the month, I'm doing my research on the ultimate smartphone. In my research thus far, NO ONE has recommended a WinMobile product, Google Android, or a Nokia anything. Since Blackberry is absolutely out of the question, it leaves me with two strong contenders, the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS.

I don't think "qingwa" has misinformed anybody. He wasn't pitching the iPhone, though stilted against the Pre, as only a precaution to closely look at some current trends/history to help make a educated choice on a new smartphone. On the other hand, one might also mistaken you, Mr. sneale2k, as a Pre Representative. As adamant as folks are about the Palm Pre, you wouldn't have figured that it just came out three weeks ago. I even doubt that most folks who has slammed the Pre, has even played with one. With that said, I'm discovering in the battle between the Pre and the iPhone, those who pick the Pre are either Apple haters, or they hate AT&T. I sense very little against the actual product itself.

I certainly hope that the Pre will grow up to have a vibrant community as the iPhone when it turns two years old. This way, the consumer will benefit from the competition. As I've learned, and most will admit, the Pre was lucky to have a model in the iPhone to follow and improve upon from the start. I suppose this is why Steve Jobs is who he is, he did it more or less blind. No one will deny Apple's success with the iPhone, hence I'm very excited that Palm may have the same history, judging from it's tremendous new following, it could very well happen. As we speak, there is NO comparison between the two community, the iPhone landscape is HUGE. In fact, I've had more people recommend the iPhone this and that than any other phones combined. Rest assured, I'm too old to follow the cool kids to be swallowed up by iPhone mania to make up my mind. This has certainly been educational, if not, a lot of fun to learn and follow.

[sneale2k]

The count on the pre right now is 700k until palm gives the numbers. I don't believe in guesses by apple fans that have been insulting a superior device since day one. While their $600 devices cant do multi-tasking and tons of other things any other device can do! I can actually change the background on a cheap free phone and cant do it on an IPHONE? seriously are kidding me? Apple is still using glass for a lens.. Please look on ebay as to how many people have broken lenses and how many have broken a pre screen.
40 miilion units? have you lost it? the sold 41 million combined with the ipod since the existance of those devices, not just iphone!. microsoft sells 18-20 million a year here is an article to help you out with the WinMo numbers.

www.phonearena.com/htmls/Windows-Mobile-to-sell-22-million-copies-6.5-gets-a-widget-engine-article-a_4355.html

NOBODY sells more than MS, NOBODY! Nothing is better than WinMO, best feature, best configuration and a full OS.



To Whom it may concern,

If you want a true device that will do anything and everything you want it to do, choose windows mobile. It's a little slower because MS cannot help it when a manufacturer does not give the device the proper memory and processor power it needs to run a full os. You will be able to configure your device any way you want and you will notice something very special over an iphone or just about any other device; you will notice that you hardly every have to reboot the device! my wife didn't reboot her htc touch pro since we started with sprint in nov of 08 and it runs very smooth.

If you want a smartphone that is in the same class as the iphone, get the pre and you will never ever be sorry because of the incredible fearures ove the iphone.



Keep in mind that iphone is gsm and all you need to do is jailbreak it and use on any gsm network and that is why their numbers are so high on sales. Palm pre numbers are USA only and with cdma technology you have to wait for an unlocked version to go from on network to another and that kept the Pre sales down because it only works on cdma. When the pre comes out fo verizon and Att you will see the numbers jump like crazy!



Palm has been leaders and they have been on top with the treo pro when you want to talk about a real smartphone tat does it all, with the pre they have taken the top spot in every category



Im an MS fan, but now i use a pre and incredibly impressed! the Pre has thousands of apps and can be used by installing classic first and then use most if not all palm apps on your pre. Go ask professionals like DOCTORS what device they use, they will whip out their Pre because it's all over the net that the medical software they have used with the palm devices in the past if functioning well on the pre.



don't let popularity fool you, because the iphone is popular, not better, not even close!
Message was edited by: rgreen4 - no personal attacks

[sneale2k]

Dingbow2408,



I don't hate apple, i hate their business practice. They strive on locking people down on anything they sell, this includes PC's. The pathetic thing is that apple fans buy anything apple blindly not realizing what they are condoning and that's complete control over them. notice how they got upset with palm because they can sync with itunes and they allow hundreds of devices to sync without saying anything? They boast on their site how itunes synce with the list of devices on their site. It'd extremely obvious that Apple is seriously worried because they have made a better device. As for the Palm community being small, that's incorrect because palm fan boys are all over this and they have a much larger community as palm has been making devices since the mid 90's that apple has clearly copied the interface of. Just look up Pam pilot, palm 505 or palm III and you will see the same icon setup on the screens. When Palm announced all these features in their new device in January of 09, palm decided to finally add copy and paste? They also deviced to add the search the Pre has in it's os.

If you have any questions about what features the Pre has over Iphone, feel free to ask!

No hate, just facts!

[qingwa]

Your argument again doesn't hold any water. Your arguments basically consists of "Pre is much better than iPhone, etc. etc." without giving facts to back it up or again only looking at facts from only one side.

You state that there are many applications available though the classic Palm OS emulator for the Palm Pre. Let me ask you this, do you believe the average consumer wants an app that was designed 3-5 years ago for an old smartphone operating system OR would they prefer as you said the market leader Windows Mobile which has thousands of apps, most new with intuitive, easy to use, touch interface? Or perhaps they can choose the 5,000 apps available for the Android OS? Or the 50,000 apps, instant download of music/apps, thousands of free podcasts, thousands of TV shows, movies and videos from iTunes formatted specifically for the iPhone OS for the 40+ million iPhone OS users?

Your argument basically boils down to: the mass market, the "average joe" consumers would rather choose an smartphone operating system because it has a larger amount of apps, a longer history of making apps and they won't mind that most of the apps are 3-5 years old. Don't pay attention to the other 5 huge competitors in Microsoft, Google, RIM, Apple and Nokia which all have more users on their platform and more resources simply because the Pre can multi-task.

My argument is thus: Consumers want the easiest to use, friendliest smartphone platform with the most utility and value. Right now the Pre doesn't have much utility or value because it has 30 apps available, hasn't released the official SDK and is up against tough competition, you should look at the overall market.

Consumers want what is available now when making their decision, the mass market is not going to buy a Pre and say I am willing to wait about one year and hope that Palm attracts enough developers to get full utility out of their smartphone (again a smartphone is more than the internet, a calender and a clock, its like a laptop that needs programs). Since there are so few apps available now for the Pre, a Pre consumer basically will spend one year paying monthly bills having a limited utility smartphone, compared to the number of apps that are available on RIM, Windows Mobile or the iPhone.

Lastly, your numbers are again (mostly) wrong. Pre has sold an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 units. Find me an article that shows 700,000 units sold.

http://bits.blogs.ny...s-of-palms-pre/

Your numbers on the iPhone OS are also wrong. There are over 40,000,000+ iPhone OS units sold.

http://news.cnet.com...0274079-37.html

Its just my opinion but I don't believe personal attacks are warranted in a debate about the merits of a smartphone platform.

[qingwa]

Go ask professionals like DOCTORS what device they use, they will whip out their Pre because it's all over the net that the medical software they have used with the palm devices in the past if functioning well on the pre.

I forgot to rebut another one of your erroneous comments.

I work full-time in a hospital in a major metropolitan city. There is no talk of the use of Pre in the medical field whatsoever. I have seen some people use Palms, Treos, but most people in the medical field are migrating to the iPhone due to the large support from Skyscape, Lexi-comp, Uptodate, Epocrates, Unbound Medicine, iSilo, Netter's, etc. Don't believe me? Check out SDN (Student Doctor Network), the largest forum for residents, medical students and doctors specifically their technology forum:

See what doctors really use:

http://forums.studen...splay.php?f=109

Its just my opinion but I think the purpose of these message boards is to inform, not to misinform people. To have civil debate without descending into personal attacks.

[sneale2k]

1. Read your article carefully my friend "Though 1 million iPhone 3GSs sold in one weekend, the latest Apple mobile device is essentially still a niche product, compared to the 40 million original iPhones, iPhone 3Gs, and both iPod Touch models already sold"

Thats a total amount for all of those devices sales.

2. Pre is easiest to use platform on the market at this time because of it's built in utilities like multi-task, synergy and gesture area just to name 3.

3. What makes it very interesting to me is that you refuse to see that when apple introduced the iphone, they had no apps for 2 months but when Pre is launched with 30 apps you feel users will refuse to wait... It's really interesting that you feel people are really aching for those 99 cent apps that have been written by and for children over the Palm apps that are very recent because the centro exists in the market with the PalmOS?

I honestly dont know how and where this information is coming from but you sure are not putting up a good fight because you are seriously misinformed about the market.

I also have mentioned many times that Windows Mobile is the best on the market and apple is no where near WinMo and will never be. Microsoft is too dynamic of a company and too smart to be taken over in the mobile market. MS took over a market that was dominated by PALM and PALM with try to take it over again because of intelligent programming that Apple has lacked since inception.

Remember it's easier to program for html OS than any other and PALM has that advantage over anyone. Android is for kids and will only make it if and when google starts giving phone service away for free as they had originally planned.

Sprint sold out the Pre in it's first weekend and it's estimated that palm produced over 700k units for the launch.

It also amazes me that you think apple sold 40 million iphones when they barely sold 8 million in the first year and those numbers were speculations because jobs didn't release the numbers.

[sneale2k]

I wont even bother responding to your rebuttle about what doctors use. You're losing it

[sneale2k]

Your argument again doesn't hold any water. Your arguments basically consists of "Pre is much better than iPhone, etc. etc." without giving facts to back it up or again only looking at facts from only one side.



Calendar layering (combining all calendering and scheduling into one and color code so you can decifer which calender that appointment came from)

Multi-tasking - iphone hasn done it in 2 years and took that 10+ years to get it working on a mac

synergy - for instance if i changd my address, the pre can pick up that information and automatically change it in you contacts and that includes of you change you tel#

I CAN CHANGE MY BACKGROUND!

Copy and paste, but apple has it now because Palm announced it in January that their device will have it

A REAL KEYBOARD

Incredible search engine that apple has now included in their 3.0 update because palm announced it in January.

gesture area

i can bring up my task bar/launch bar from anywhere in any app

4 g

Smaller form factor unlike the iphone which is a face shield

All inone chat box that includes aim, facebook and many other messaging apps.

+ ANYTHING THE IPHONE CAN DO AND DO IT BETTER



oh wait, we dont have a video camera, but give palm 2 years and lets see where they will be compared to apple. This is the first version of webos and it runs circles around iphone/itouch os.

do yourself a favor, give up you cant win because apple is a backwards company and will always be. although they do have pretty devices, oh wait, they copied their designs from palm too! what a shame eh?

Here is a reference, tungsten

[qingwa]

This will be my last reply to your rebuttals which I believe are unconvincing to undecided consumers. Your posts may appeal to Pre fans but your last post at least 50% of your points lack all substance.

I quote from your post, why in your opinion the Pre is superior to the iPhone:

I CAN CHANGE MY BACKGROUND!

I have never seen any journalist point this out as a selling point for a platform operating system. I doubt this will convince any fence-sitters.

Copy and paste, but apple has it now because Palm announced it in January that their device will have it

The fact that both operating systems have copy and paste, how does that actually persuade someone to choose between the Pre and iPhone? I quite honestly don't understand your logic.

Incredible search engine that apple has now included in their 3.0 update because palm announced it in January.
gesture area

Again I don't understand your logic, its supposed to be a comparison of differences, not similarities to help consumers choose which platform to buy. This is just spam, seriously.

i can bring up my task bar/launch bar from anywhere in any app
4 g

This is a valid argument and a point of comparison between the two platforms. However, you fail to mention that 4G is only available in Baltimore at the current time and will slowly be rolled out in select areas by the end of this year.

Smaller form factor unlike the iphone which is a face shield

Yes, the Palm Pre has a smaller footprint. I don't know if this is a major sticking point for consumers, I have rarely ever seen it mentioned in any comparisons or reviews.

All inone chat box that includes aim, facebook and many other messaging apps.

Valid comparison and I admit can be a useful feature for some consumers.

ANYTHING THE IPHONE CAN DO AND DO IT BETTER+

When you make statements like this, you lose all credibility. In my opinion it sounds childish, like "everything you can do, I can do better." Without providing any facts or arguments to support your claim (as most adults require but not children).

I also see that you failed to rebut me on the fact that most doctors are now migrating to the iPhone and NONE to the Palm Pre (as evidenced by the many posts from SDN - forumsstudentdoctor.net). Nor did you refute the numbers I presented from CNET.com or Times.com regarding the numbers of Palm Pre sold (150,000 to 300,000) to iPhone OS (40,000,000+).

My points in why I believe the iPhone is currently superior to other smartphones on the market: largest amount of apps created for this generation of smartphone (50,000) allowing the greatest utility, including entertainment, business, reference, education, navigation, etc., iTunes provides access to the world's largest music store for direct download to the iPhone, thousands of free podcasts, video podcasts, movies, TV shows formatted for the iPhone and available free for direct download to the iPhone, iTunes U for education, unparalleled support for iPhone from third parties (from cars to stereos to accessories) makes the iPhone easier to use.

My posts are to clarify the difference between the platforms and what consumers can expect in support and utility from their choice. Most of your posts were personal attacks, with broad generalizations of Apple users, with many erroneous facts which I pointed out and supported with articles from CNet.com and times.com.

Your numbers were not backed up by any articles from respected internet sources, nor did you provide any sources or links but simply stated they were fact.

My last point is that Blackberry has the enterprise and business market cornered. However, RIM does not enjoy a Blackberry universe, with a huge music store, tens of thousands of apps, thousands of accessories, etc. which is more useful for the general public. Neither those Android or Windows Mobile. Neither does Palm Pre.

When you buy a smartphone, you look at all the support for that platform and what utility/value can you receive from it.

[sneale2k]

uh.. yeah.. ok

you forgot very important features like calendar layering, mult-tasking, synergy. keyboard and gesture area.. aww nothing to say about those features? isn't that a shame?

by the way 4g will be out very early next year and if att rolled out 4g today the iphone cant use it. but you're right about the background thing, people don't have their own styles and the internet does not have billions of different backgrounds that you can search for. Funny how every phone in the world can change backgrounds except for the iphone.

40 million ipod os's not iphone. it's pretty uneducated when you include the sale of ipods cosidering this is about the iphone. i sure hope apple pays you well to misinform people about their copy of winmo and palm device that lacks simple built in tools.

[dingbow2408]

To conclude from my previous post for advice in buying a new smartphone (as my current 2 year service contract is up, I'm free!). My quest for a new smartphone has truly been entertaining and educational. I thank you to everyone on this post for their input/2 cents. With diligent research, hands on experience with a few leading contenders outside of Crackberry (previously had one...hated it), I think I've come up with a final decision. Since Consumer Report came out with their results yesterday, my choice was sealed.

Reading through mountains of blogs and news articles for the past two weeks has certainly taught me a lot of the current wireless landscape. As mentioned in my previous posts, I'm... lets say older, not the young buck type that enjoys messing with the insides of my computer, jailbreaking phones, carry an extra flash card... and what the hell is tweeting? I like things easy and intuitive. Then why did I have a Blackberry that I hated? Everyone in my science office two years ago had one and said it was what I needed, the "it" smartphone to have. Not even sure why my colleagues even had Blackberrys, it's security feature wasn't even required for our work, but yet it was the thing to have. Well, lesson learned.

This time I did my own research. Though, older, I do like up to date things. I'm still active, so naturally having all the modern functions inside a smartphone would be nice (ie. mp3 player, camera, video, internet, 3G network, email, etc...), as long as it was easy to learn, functional, fun to use, and of course, reliable. Basically meeting my needs for the next two years of my cellular contract. In every sense, I think I'm pretty much the average consumer looking for a new phone.

I was willing to leave AT&T, and money was no object, since my office was helping me with a few monthly bucks to have a phone (to keep tabs on me), I was open to any current smartphone on the market. I had the opportunity to play with a friend's Pre, an HTC, an iPhone 3G and even a Samsung BlackJack (yes, I saw one in the wild). I was surprised that most stores DON'T have working versions of their latest phones, how completely useless is that?

By far, the top recommendation among friends, colleagues, bloggers, and web sites, has been the iPhone (88%). I didn't want to be bias in my decision, I must admit, I did use a first generation iPhone as a hand me down when my Blackberry became a complete nightmare. Then the iPhone battery became weak and was given an old Sony Ericson W550 to use until my contract was up (switching sim cards at the store was a easy... well, plus $18), I still kept an open mind in my quest. I had to, to avoid the utter mess that was my experience with RIM's archaic operating system/user interface.

I won't go into details why and what phones I used that didn't make my own PERSONAL cut, I'm sure you can find your own, there are plenty of opinions on this site, plus more through out the web. I think the key was to actually/physically use one to explore with. Each phone had their own plus and minuses, minus includes their armies of loyal fanatical followers... my God, the hatred for anything outside their own gadget/computing world is kind of scary. People do get worked up about defending their smartphones.

Needless to say, after two weeks (longer than I had researched my current car), I came to conclusion of purchasing the iPhone 3GS. There's just too much about it to ignore. The iPhone is community is huge! It has matured into an incredible platform. An all in one device, customized to my needs with thousands of EXISTING applications available. I realize that by getting an iPhone, I've become part of the current pop culture, which I really wanted to avoid (did I tell you that I'm old). This iPhone buzz is real, there's a reason for it's #1 status, its really a great phone. It was made for the consumers like me, who enjoys a product, but doesn't like to be challenged by it. I think my 70+ year old mother could even figure it out. I guess I'm back to using the "it" phone at the moment. The only thing standing in my way from purchasing an iPhone 3GS... local stores in Austin are out of stock of the Black 16 GB. Bummer.

Anyway, my search is over (my wife is pleased), I just wanted to update and thank you everyone again for their help. Have a great 4th of July.

[cpezie]

As you said the choice is indeed yours. Enjoy losing your signal when speaking with co-workers.

Oh by the way I just got a Pre a few days ago and i'm using it more than my quad core pc. I'm 33 my wife has a crackberry and i've had may paln in the past. Before making my decision I spoke with my co-workers who have iphone and they didn't sale me on it. Especially when I hear it sucks as a phone...?? They use their work issued BB's for calls. Haha

At any rate it's your dime, spend it.

[dingbow2408]

@cpezie: At least I recognize that AT&T may be the issue when it comes to cell phone coverage, NOT the phone. AT&T has the highest rated cell phone service in Austin Texas. I also know that they may not be in other cities. That's being truthful. I can tell from your reply that you are a biased discussion troller, advice people don't trust when reading. I thank you for caring so much about what phone I plan to purchase to add your little immature comments to. Young Sir, for a 33 year old, you should grow up.