Like many people, I've been rumour watching the iPhone 3G announcement, likely tomorrow. I decided not to get an iPhone last year and bought a Nokia N95 instead. I've quite enjoyed having the Nokia phone, the WiFi and the camera have been really useful.
However several things appeal about the new iPhone. The sheer usability of the phone is amazing, having played with friends' iPhones, going back to the cursor puck and soft keys of the N95 feels limiting. The bundled, essentially limitless internet access with O2 is a real draw, much like having wifi at home makes the internet part of my life, having mobile access to information is very tempting, especially with a fixed cost.
The app store is an interesting development, I've downloaded a few apps to my N95, but not in great numbers and I've never bought an application. The iTunes derived store on the other hand has me excited. The webapps are ok, a taster of what is to come I think. Even the games look good.
I think it is part of the clean integration that Apple are offering with the iPhone. It will be easy to find and purchase apps. I'll use the same tools I use to manage my music. Contact and address book management on the N95 never felt like they were that well integrated with my life. The simple change that I can plug my iPhone into my mac to charge it, in fact the default mode means that will sync my phone regularly. With the N95, as the Nokia software is primarily Windows based this never became a reality, it was possible, just not straightforward. This simple MacOSX based integration is a compelling attraction and one of the main reasons I'm planning on breaking my contract with Orange.
However, I'd still really want a few things from the new iPhone. A better still camera and one that can shoot video. I have shot a lot of fun little clips of video with the N95, so losing that would be sad. 32G would be great, then I can more or less leave my 5G iPod at home for the car. Video is probably the main one, pulling out a phone to grab 30 seconds of my son being cute is pretty important.
So after 11 years, I think, with Orange I'm off to O2, actually mainly I'm off to Apple in effect. Too much of the Orange and Nokia support is focused around Windows, given past market share that is reasonable, but time consuming for me. Like my choice of computer is now down to whatever models of MacBook Apple release I'm happy to say the same about my choice of phone for the foreseeable future. There are better things to waste time over than choosing a phone.
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