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I haven’t updated in a while because there really hasn’t been much I felt like talking about, but with the iPhone 3G coming out in less than 2 days I figured I would give my unsolicited reasons why I’ll be sticking with my iPod Touch for now.

My issues aren’t so much with Apple as they are with AT&T, but in the end I guess they both get some of the credit equally.  For example, I like the following items:

• 3G performance.  I live in the Pittsburgh area and the AT&T coverage maps show us just dripping in glorious high speed bandwidth.
• GPS.  This is a pro and a con with me.  I like that the phone can figure out where I am, etc., but it is still lacking in what I really want when we say GPS.  I’ll get to that in the items I don’t like below.
• Price.  Hey, I can live with the extra 10 bucks a month for higher Internet performance, but I have a couple huge issues with the pricing that I’ll discuss below, but the price to purchase an iPhone is very attractive at $199 and $299.
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.  Huge pro in my opinion.  I have used cell phones based on Windows Mobile and I now have a BlackBerry Curve.  Overall I feel the BlackBerry kicks Windows Mobile’s ass, but you can’t deny that Exchange ActiveSync is a better, faster, more seamless solution for accessing Exchange.  Don’t get me wrong, you’d have a hard time getting the BlackBerry Curve away from me, but I like Exchange Active Sync better than the BES solution.
• Apps!  OK, this one may be a wash as I have (well, had) a jailbroken iPod Touch and having access to all of those 3rd party applications made the Touch a lot more valuable to me than the factory default model.
• Push email with MobileMe.

But along with the good comes the reasons that I don’t really see the new iPhone 3G in my near future.

• Consumer vs Enterprise data plans?  Come on AT&T, I’ll take the extra $10 a month for unlimited access to your 3G network, but charging enterprises an extra $25 a month, or $15 a month more than the consumer plan is just lame.  It is purely greed and is inexcusable.  There is no reason for this enterprise penalty.  Carries need to stop using the tern “unlimited” unless they really mean unlimited.
• No SMS messages included with the data plan?  None?  Come on.  Actually, all of you carriers out there need to listen up, the fact that you have the balls to charge us for SMS messages when we already have a data plan is ridiculous and is nothing more than another example of pure greed.  We have the data plan, there is no need to hit us for texting on top of it.
• GPS.  So I am hearing that the GPS antenna is too weak to work as a true turn by turn GPS, and I’ve also heard that Apple have stated in the SDK that 3rd parties may not implement turn by turn navigation systems as well.  What gives?  How useful will the GPS be if I can’t get turn by turn directions out of it?  I was hoping to eliminate a device.  Actually, I’m still hoping that Apple will acquire either Garmin or license their technology as I like the Garmin much better than any of the other GPS’ I have used.
• No improvements to the camera or software to control it.
• No video.
• Still no MMS!  Come on, what technical reason is there that the iPhone still does not handle MMS messages?

So the new iPhone 3G is not (yet) for me, but I will keep watching the technology to see if Apple makes improvements to the things that I think are weaknesses today.  I remember when the original iPhone came out last year everyone kept saying that the great thing was Apple could do anything they wanted with the iPhone just by making software changes.  That’s great for some things but that’s not going to fix an underpowered GPS antenna.  Will software magically improve the camera or enable video?  Maybe, we’ll see.

For now, as I write this, I am restoring my iPod Touch back to factory defaults to get ready for the 2.0 software release and the Apps store.  I think those 2 items are the bigger news to me.  I’ll get to play with most of the new applications from the comfort of my home wireless and the iPod Touch.  Maybe some day the timing will be right and the features will exist that put a new iPhone in my hand, but for now I’ll stick with my Touch and the mighty BlackBerry Curve.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Apple, Microsoft, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.