Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to believe that the way we connect to the world will be through our phones. Other countries, like Europe and Japan, are already ahead of the States in this aspect. With the great push of the iPhone and Driod, already most of our civilized cities encompass and encourage this technology. Now, the choice becomes, which smartphone is the “best”?
Let’s start with a quick history lesson in mobile technology, we going back back to the turn of the 21st century. A now defunct little company, called Palm, took over the market of portable digital organizers with their flagship and self titled Palm devices. The early models could sync with your PC and connect to the internet on their own via additional modem hardware (since the majority of the internet clients were still using “dial-up” connections). As high-speed, wireless, and Bluetooth technologies evolved, so did the Palms allowing for more mobility and usability. At this time, Microsoft took a stab at the technology with the introduction of the Pocket PC built around their Windows CE technology. Pocket PC and Palm changed the way the world saw the internet. Now, through a simple wireless connection, you could view your calendar, email, and some websites all from the palm of your hand. In addition, you no longer had to connect your little device to your PC (thanks to innovations in Microsoft’s Exchange Server email system). At this time, Microsoft, as they so regularly do, changed the name from Pocket PC to Windows Mobile. Shortly thereafter, Blackberry entered the market with the first devices that integrated your cellular phone and your digital organizer. Microsoft soon followed suit with another revamp of their Pocket PC OS, called Windows Mobile for Smartphones. Due to cost (whether they were manufacturing or just greedy profits), these two devices were originally only available to the financially elite or businesses. Unfortunately, Palm entered the market too late. They hung for a while, but eventually lost to the Windows giant and Blackberry. This brings us to Apple’s emergence into the industry with their now highly sought after iPhone. The iPhone’s hardware and OS has introduced a new change in the mobile technology. Now integrating a simple digital camera, camcorder, digital organizer, full internet browser, email, and a slew of social “apps” and games, you don’t even need a PC for your day-to-day internet tasks. Admittedly, Microsoft had already achieved this by Windows Mobile 6, but never on the scale Apple did. Leave it to Mac users to start a trend. 
With the internet giant, Google, hot on Apple’s trail releasing their Android OS (commonly referred to as Driod) and Microsoft back in the race with their completely revamped Windows Phone 7 OS, Blackberry is now a dead company. Will anyone else take up the race? Who knows; but they better have an astounding device and PR department. 
Well, maybe this wasn’t quite a short history lesson.
On to the competitors. Personally, I want a completely autonomous phone that doesn’t even need a computer. What do I mean by that? Well, here are the requirements:
- email, calendar, etc, must function with my existing email accounts (whether they be work or personal) and should be accessible no matter where I am. Applications on the phone should be able to integrate these. Screw viewing it through a web browser.
- I prefer a completely touch screen device with the ability to zoom in while viewing objects (like web pages, pictures, etc). As a bonus (but no required), the phone should have a very usable “dual thumb” keyboard. Not one of those crappy half keyboards where you end up pushing 2 buttons instead of one.
- The device must be of decent size. This means not to large to fit in my pocket, but not so small that you have issues typing with the on-screen keyboard.
- The device should be able to download and install miscellaneous applications via the cellular network that can keep up with my mobile life, such as social website access, online banking, simple games for entertainment, electronic books, references for “trivia” questions, etc.
- Have a decent digital still/video camera in case I want to photographically document and share/brag my mobile life.
- A fully functional web browser that can view real web pages, not just mobile-friendly ones. This includes videos, animations, and scripts (forms).
- The phone should be able to get any updates it needs for the OS or applications via the cellular network.
- Oh yeah, it needs to be able to make phone calls, too.
I’ve had the luck of being able to use the iPhone, Driod, and Windows Mobile (not the new 7 ones) devices. Over the years, I became partial to Windows Mobile. Currently, I have a HTC Driod Eris. My only downfall with the Eris is it’s slightly smaller size; this can be remedied by replacing it with the Motorolla Driod X (if I only had the funds). The Eris also tends to go into a huge lag when trying to place or answer a phone call. I think that’s a problem with the Andriod OS, though, as the wifey has the same problem with her LG Ally. I was able to tinker with an iPhone 3GS for a while. I would still be using it for work, but the cell program we’re using doesn’t have any more allocations for the “special” iPhone data plan (which irks me to no end that it requires a data plan different from AT&T’s other smartphones). Also, the fact that you must initially set the phone up and apply updates through iTunes really boils my already overfull pot of “things I don’t like about Apple’s proprietary methods”. As for Windows Phone 7, I don’t know what to expect. The devices I’ve seen so far (in pictures only) seem a bit small, so I’m waiting for them to get through their initial consumer wear and tear. Like Apple (now on their 4th generation), I’m sure there will be much more to offer in future revisions. I’ll hold my opinions and stick with my Windows Mobile 6.5 Samsung Jack for now (even though I don’t care much for the physical device) until I can actually test drive 7. Hopefully, some time early next year.
For now, outside of the iTunes requirement, the iPhone has impressed me the most with its smooth transitioning OS and perfectly sizable hardware. Overall, Andriod is a more fully-featured OS. The Driods are 2nd in my book only because they annoyingly lock up (drag) in certain scenarios and require an app for memory management. Like installing Windows 7 on an old computer, until the hardware manufacturers catch up, memory usage will continue to be Andriod’s downfall. As for Windows Phone 7, it was a much needed upgrade to the now antiquated Windows Mobile. However, let’s see if Microsoft can make the same or better innovations by the time they’re on their 4th generation devices. If you’ll remember, the iPhone still lacked quite a few features in it’s first incarnation, and though it was older, I still strongly stood by my Windows Mobile when Apple first released them.
BTW, I think it’s time to finally let this blog die. Between married life (yes, as of Oct 23, the GF/fiancé became the wifey), work, and projects around the house that need completing, I just don’t have the time or desire to play on the internet anymore. Unless I get a huge hair to rant about something, you probably won’t be seeing anything new here. I don’t even socialize on Facebook much anymore. Sorry, but real life has just gotten in the way of my internet socialization (god forbid).
l8rz, and maybe see you in the next incarnation of the interwebz…
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