Why I Don't Want an iPhone

I'm kind of in a geeky-technical-article-writing mood, so if geeky technical articles aren't your thing, you might as well just skip this post, and maybe a few more that follow.

Since the iPhone 3G came out last week, I've had several people ask me if I was going to get one. Well, the answer is quite simple: on a piece of paper write the two letters that follow "M" in the English alphabet. And be sure to capitalize. Then add an exclamation point or three. There are many, many reasons. I won't list all of them, but I'll hit on a few deal-breakers.

Lost Functionality

Some of the biggest are because of things I'd be losing transitioning away from my current phone (an E-TEN glofiish X500+). These are things that I actually do with my phone, and do regularly.

• High resolution screen. My glofiish has a VGA (480x640) resolution screen. The iPhone's is half of that (320x480). So everything would be twice as blocky and blurry.
• Voice commands and interaction. I can say "Call John Smith at Work" and the phone does it. Or "What is my next appointment" and it reads it to me. Or tell it to "Play Natasha Bedingfield." It also reads my incoming emails and text messages aloud. Very cool.
• Dial contacts by name or a portion of their number. On the iPhone you scroll to a contact in your contact list, or dial their entire number. On my glofiish (and other Windows Mobile devices) I can either dial a portion of their phone number or name and select them from a short list that updates in real-time. For John Smith I would dial S then M (or actually 7 and 6) and John Smith would pop up. In most cases it only takes two or three keystrokes to find the person you are looking for. On a touch-screen device, this is wonderful.
• Automatic ring/vibrate modes. If I setup an appointment on my calendar the phone automatically goes to vibrate mode during that block of time. No surprise ringing in church or at the movie!
• GPS with door-to-door routing. I have no less than three programs on my current cell phone that do door-to-door routing. The iPhone has none. (Not that cell phones necessarily make great navigation devices though.)
• Full Microsoft Exchange synchronization. While the iPhone can synchronize email, contacts, and calendars with a Microsoft Exchange server, it doesn't automatically sync email folders besides the Inbox (a deal breaker for me since I have rules that move messages to the appropriate folders automatically), doesn't allow any sort of email search (phone or server-side), and doesn't allow me to access files on my network remotely like my glofiish does.
• Remote desktop. I can connect to and use any of my computers at home from my glofiish, just as if I was sitting in front of them. And it's actually pretty fast.
• Use phone as a modem for a laptop. With three clicks on a laptop, I can get on the Internet using my cell phone's always-on, unlimited data connection, wirelessly. Not something that just looks like the Internet, but the real Internet. iPhone? Nope... Apple doesn't want it to, and AT&T won't allow it. But anywhere I have phone coverage I can get on the Internet with my phone, laptop, or even both at the same time.
• Use its GPS for laptop navigation software. My phone shares its GPS with laptops and other devices over Bluetooth.
• Free calls to friends, family, business contacts. This is actually a T-Mobile thing, not a phone thing. But if I were to play by the rules and switch to AT&T as part of getting the iPhone, I'd lose my free T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile minutes, which I use very heavily.
• Create and edit Office documents. I can not only view, but also create and edit Word, Excel, and OneNote documents. As geeky as it is, I actually do create spreadsheets right on my phone with some regularity. Having the VGA screen really helps here.
• Battery life. I'm hearing the iPhone 3G battery has a hard time making it through a work day if it is used at all. Not much of an issue with my current phone.
• Satellite radio. I can (and do) listen to XM satellite radio on my phone.
• Fully-featured custom applications. Apple has placed some pretty tight restrictions on what software can run on the iPhone. Programs can't run "behind the scenes" for example. No such restrictions on the glofiish.
• The most awesome scripture reading program isn't available on the iPhone. I use it at least every Sunday. And nothing else comes anywhere near its functionality.

And a couple things that I don't do very often, but that are missing from the iPhone:

• Record video.
• Send pictures, music, and video to other cell phones.
• Listen to FM Radio.

Unnecessary Headaches

Since Apple is only allowing their phones to be used on AT&T in the US, I'd be forced to switch cell phone carriers. This would cause other headaches, not directly the fault of Apple:

• For an equivalent family plan like I have (4 phones, 1000 minutes, unlimited data on 3 of the 4, unlimited text messages on all, free calls within the network), I'd be paying about 2.5 times as much as I currently am -- $300+/mo vs $120 (before taxes).
• AT&T coverage isn't very good. In fact, there is virtually no AT&T coverage at my home. With T-Mobile I get a full 5 bars nearly everywhere I go on a normal basis. Apple couldn't have picked a national cell phone carrier with worse coverage.
• Since AT&T's 3G network is still new and being rolled out, I'd be forced to use their 2.5G network. T-Mobile's 2.5G data network is about 2-3 times as fast as AT&T's 2.5G (80kbps vs 200kbps typical), not too far off of AT&T's real-world 3G speeds.

In All Fairness

There are a few things that the iPhone does that my phone currently does not. They just don't outweigh the above issues enough to make switching even worth considering.

• Browser. Hands down the version of Safari on the iPhone is much better than Internet Explorer on my phone. There are some worthy alternatives for my phone coming out at some point, but nothing just yet.
• Multi-touch. Pinching to zoom, etc. My glofiish is single touch.
• iTunes. I don't particularly care for it, but a lot of people I know have their music and video in iTunes. Of course only Apple devices can play these files.
• Accelerometer. The iPhone can sense which way it is being held relative to the direction of gravity.
• Storage. The iPhone's storage is either 8GB or 16GB. My glofiish currently only has 4GB. (Fortunately, when 8 or 16GB MicroSD cards become common I can swap it out.)
• Pretty interface. The iPhone's interface is certainly more esthetically designed than Windows Mobile 6.1 on my glofiish, but overall it is a lot less functional, because buttons have to be big enough to push with a finger. Personally I feel that the iPhone's interface is kind of bland, though. Screenshots here and here.
• 3G network. If AT&T ever decides to roll out 3G with decent coverage in my area, it might double the data transfer speeds I get with my glofiish.

Am I really using Windows Mobile?

Yes, I am; WM6.1 Professional. I know that iPhone aficionados will claim that Windows Mobile is unstable and crashes a lot. That may have been true 2-3 years ago, but it just isn't the case any longer. My phone is one of the most stable devices I own. It actually crashes less than my iPod Touch.

One bit of iPod Touch followup

In my last post about the iPod Touch, I wasn't able to get the device to synchronize or display HTML email. Re-installing some software on my mail server fixed that, so I'm now getting HTML mail on my Touch.