Now the hype is over

Having decided that I won't be buying an iphone before Christmas and with the rose tinted glasses definitely back in their case I realised that I had been caught up in the whole hype. I picked up my p990 (with broken jog dial) and thought what would I have gained from buying an iphone?

The Browser - Then I realised I had opera mini (which simulates the safari browser). But then I also read a review on www.stuff.co.nz and the reviewer mentioned that to load their home page on 3G took around 30-40 seconds. Opera mini does the same in around 10-20s! That' with 3G, now here is the other criticism that is also appearing in the forums. The iphone will only be on 3G in the major centres because it does not support the 2100Mhz that Vodafone use for 3G outside of these centres. Apparently Telecom NZ will have a country wide 850Mhz, which means the iphone (if they choose to sell it) will be on 3G everywhere. Telecom NZ will role their new network out from November 2008.

GPS - Who cares, I've got google maps as an install on mine and that's good enough to find places and get directions to them.

Erm and that's it. In terms of what I've got that the iphone doesn't have, well MMS (but you know my views on that one), blue tooth support and more importantly video support. Not for video calling, but for those impromptu times that you want to record something. This I do use a lot at school to capture things, for assessment or just to review later.

This should not be seen as a criticism of the iphone, I still think that it changed the worlds (well maybe not here because of Vodafone pricing) view of mobile data and the mobile web, but sometimes you get caught up with it all and become blinded to what you really believe in. If somebody asked me if they should buy the iphone I would have to now say no. I had said to a number of people, wait for the iphone, assuming it would be reasonably priced and with a good data plan. This has not happened and I just can't have an iphone myself and tell others don't get one. I believe in the mobile web for everybody and the iphone just doesn't quite meet that criteria, well at least not today anyway!