Why I bought and then cancelled an iPhone before I even had it

Apple_iphone_adsAll of the hoopla must have worked its magic on me yesterday. Around 6:15 pm, 15 minutes after the Apple iPhone was available here in my area, I hopped in my car and drove to the Quakertown, PA AT&T store. "Store" is actually a misnomer because the AT&T folks actually have a kiosk in a supermarket there, but it was advertised as having iPhone availability. Since they’re a kiosk, they had zero stock. They weren’t sold out, they just never got any stock. Instead, they were placing direct fulfillment orders right on the AT&T computer system. As a would-be new AT&T customer, I filled out one form only to for the sales folks to tell me that they were having issues in the system. No worries; they would input an 8 GB iPhone order as soon as they could and then call me so I could return to provide my credit card. As promised, they called me today. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for me, the magic wore off. I’ve told them to cancel the order.

It hit me today as I read review after review after review. The iPhone just isn’t for me. Maybe if it was $200 or so I might have re-considered, but the fact is: it’s not the right tool for my tasks. Even more: it’s truly a consumer device and while I am a consumer, I’m even more of a mobile professional (that was for you Palm).

If I had bought the iPhone, I would have paid $175 to cancel my recently opened T-Mobile account. That hurts the budget right there on a device that’s effectively comparable at best to my T-Mobile Dash. Let’s forget about the "how" you do things on the two devices, which does indeed vary. It’s the "what" they do that really hit me. I tether my Dash for EDGE access when not in a WiFi hotspot; no can do with the iPhone. That’s effectively a deal-breaker right there since again, I need to work where and when I want. I could get past that issue by getting my Dash unlocked and swapping SIM cards out; it does work per Matt Miller’s testing, but I’d have to carry two phones. Not desirable.

I do web browse on my Dash quite a bit and I’m sure the experience is much better on the iPhone. But it’s not really due to having the Safari browser; it’s due to the larger screen. Using Opera Mini 4 on the Dash, I have the same effective page view to zoom in and out on. I do have to use my D-Pad to move the cursor, but I can do that with one hand. Holding the iPhone and using two fingers to pinch or expand the screen is extremely innovative and I can’t take anything away from Apple here. Again, it’s not desirable to me personally because it requires two hands.

Lastly, the closed nature of the iPhone is just not appealing to me. I’ve used Windows Mobile devices since 2000. That means I’ve had seven years of third-party application options; taking that away is really tough to swallow right now. I expect we’ll see some great web-based apps for the iPhone but it’s just too limiting of an environment for now.

Yup, AT&T called me today to complete the order. I really wanted to say "Great, here’s my info; let’s get that 8 GB iPhone to me quickly". I really did. But the magic only lasted a day. For everyone else who bought one: I’m sure you’ll enjoy this consumer device. I’m just more of a mobile professional than a consumer today.

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