I bought the iPhone 3G about 9 months ago switching from a Sony Ericsson W580i. At first I thought it was an upgrade, but now looking back and looking at my increased phone bills I see that in fact it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy my iPhone, but going from a phone that I paid 100$ on the release day in August of 2007, has the same camera as the iPhone 3G (released a year later), with video capturing capabilities and the same storage as my iPhone is pretty mind boggling (on top of the 299$ price tag).
When people asked me, when I first got the iPhone, how much I loved it I told them that Apple had won me over that this phone was fantastic, that I didn’t need anything else; I could take pictures, listen to music, browse the web and check my email on 3G or WiFi (something that I usually only due when I was in class… with a laptop), I thought it had replaced my laptop/digital camera. I could also play fantastic games to waste away study time in the campus library.
When I look back at those times that I played tetris on my iPhone, listened to the latest tracks and took those pictures of my friends after one to many drinks, I realise… I could’ve saved the initial 299$, and the extra 25$ a month for ‘unlimited’ (6GB) mobile web-browsing, and done it all on my Sony Ericsson.
The most appealing thing about the iPhone is not it’s sleek design or the Apple name that’s attached to it, but the AppStore, and I think that’s the only reason why so many people – that I know – have switched from their Nokia, BlackBerry, and various other handsets. Like the Apple commercial says have a problem, or need something?
There’s an App for that.
But my problem with the iPhone 3G is that for a phone that was released in 2008, and was hailed to be a phone that advances cellular technology… man did it ever fall short. The camera, a mere 2.0 mega-pixel, is disappointing compared to the Nokia n95’s 5.0 mega-pixel (released March 2007). The Nokia also allows multi-tasking, MMS, video conferencing out of the box. It took Apple almost a year before they updated the iPhone’s firmware to have the ability to MMS, without jail breaking. And now with the release of the iPhone 3GS Apple has finally, almost, caught up to other phones in their forward thinking (GPS?! No way!), but still the phone can not multi-task (out of box – for those who are looking for this check out Background on Cydia), does not have the technology for video conferencing – which I think would be fantastic – and still is behind the n95’s 5.0 mega-pixel (latest iPhone has added one mega-pixel to it’s predecessor, an amazing 3.0!)
Now you’re probably asking why I don’t just switch phones if I dislike my iPhone so much, well the reason is – like I said – the variety of applications, and with my phone being jail broken I can access even more apps, and the ability to customise the appearance of it.
All this to say that my poor old W580i is now collecting dust in it’s original box.
