The Net Monkey

With its much anticipated release in a matter of days, the iPhone is all the rage at the moment. Knowing that I’ve been an Apple fanboy for many years, I’ve been asked by several people if I’m buying an iPhone when it comes out. The answer is a flat no, at least for now, and here’s why.

• The first generation iPhone here in the USA will not support 3G. For those of you who won’t know, 3G is the moniker describing third generation mobile data technology. AT&T has a 3G network in place right now, as a matter of fact, with coverage in major metropolitan areas (including Indianapolis and most of the surrounding suburbs). Since the iPhone requires a data plan, it behooves Apple to use the fastest available technology. On a positive note, they did promise to have it at a later date, but, for now, iPhone users will have to settle for EDGE, which is much slower, and will probably have to buy a new phone if they want 3G.
• Using the first generation of any Apple product can be risky. If you look at the brouhaha surrounding the original MacBook Pro, you’ll see that it is sometimes wise to just wait and see. This isn’t necessarily because of defects either, but because there is usually a big difference between Apple’s marketing hype and reality.
• Support for third-party applications is a farce. A lot of developers are itching to create applications that operate directly on the iPhone, but Apple decided to keep it a closed platform, claiming third-party support via web-based applications. Sorry, Apple, that doesn’t count. Even my old LG phone on Sprint could discover telephone numbers in a web page and place a call. I hardly call that integration or innovation.
• There’s no support for MMS. Without MMS, I can’t send pictures taken on the iPhone to someone else’s phone. I do this from time to time, but Apple is only going to support SMS (text), from what I’ve read. If I want to send a picture to someone directly from the phone, email is the only option. I haven’t read whether Apple intends to bring this to the iPhone or not.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m certainly not against buying an iPhone in the future, but, for now, there are cheaper phones out there that meet my needs and can tackle most, if not all, of the issues laid out above.

I know that Apple will eventually offer 3G. I know that the kinks will eventually get worked out. I also believe that Apple will eventually open up the platform, allowing me to install third-party applications directly on the phone itself. If they can tackle these issues, or at least offer some really compelling reasons for me to use a closed platform without MMS, Apple may have an iPhone customer in me after all, but for now I’m going to stick with Nokia’s S60 platform.