16
Jan
2010
Why I Love My iPhone
The smart phone market is heating up with the launch of Andriod 2.1 from Google running on HTC hardware and called the Nexus One. Late last year Microsoft release Windows Phone 6.5 and again HTC is the hardware of choice for running the platform. In the background is the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
In the last two years for work I’ve had a Palm Treo 750, HTC Dopod 838 Pro and currently a HTC Touch Pro. In previous lives I also used Blackberry devices. For a corporate device I don’t believe that you can go past the Blackberry devices. (Note : I haven’t used Windows Phone 6.5 so can’t speak for it). In a work device I really want a device that does the following:
1. Is a phone that is easy to use, easy to look up contacts make calls etc..
2. Is easy to SMS
3. Has Bluetooth
4. Is easy to read and compose emails
5. Manages and makes good use of Contacts and Calendar items.
6. Has Over the Air (OTA) sync ability to my Exchange mailbox.
That’s it.. Ideally if a Bluetooth PAN can be configured for Internet access that’s a nice bonus but really the above list of 6 is all I really need and use for work. I find Windows Mobile is very clunky for dealing with contacts and some email work, particularly if you have a lot of folders in your mailbox. Worse still is the TouchFlo 3D on the HTC devices. This interface (which I disable) is extremely resource intensive and not intuitive at all. I will caveat the above comments by stating that the device running Windows Mobile has a large impact on the performance of the OS. I have found the Touch HD is a much nicer device then the previous two, the PALM particularly.
Of course the features mentioned above are in the context of a user and not an IT Professional. The device must also support Full device encryption, Remote Wipe etc.. All the functions of ActiveSync that I need to ensure the data security of my employer.
Now let’s move onto the iPhone. To be far I’d like to start by looking at the list above. It is very easy to make calls and handle contacts, has Bluetooth and is licensed for Active sync. However I find Calendar and email is a little underdone and the IT Pro features, whilst improving, aren’t there yet.
But… as a personal device the iPhone is possibly the best device I have ever owned. First and foremost it has a large market share, which results in a large number of developers and a large number of apps. I contently use Shazam (records a portion or a song and it returns the title and artist), Facebook, LinkedIn, Tweetdeck, BOM Radar, Trip View (Sydney Public Transport info), UrbanSpoon and Around Me (for finding restaurants etc..) Flickr, e-buddy (Messaging App that hooks into MSN, Facebook, Yahoo etc..), Foxtel Guide to view the guide and remote record to my iQ, Cricket Live and F1 Live Timing 2010. Don’t forget it’s also an iPod and runs Safari for some Web Surfing. Also a number of companies have iphone versions of their sites (detected with cookies) which improves the web experience.
The bad side of the iPhone is that iTunes is the interface and I’m not a big fan and also the size of the updates. Rather then releasing ‘meta’ updates each update is a full OS load of about 330MB.
Moving forward I’ve got a big decision come December when my contact is up as to whether I will get a new iPhone or another device. If I was making the decision today I’d probably hang onto the iPhone for another few months and wait and see how the Nexus One and Windows Phone 7 looks. Personally though I find the iPhone easy to use and the number of apps is awesome with over 100,000 in app store compared with < 20,000 for WinMo. I do believe it’s the apps and interface that makes the iPhone such a great device, but probably not for the Enterprise.