I don't usually do this, but since everyone is airing their opinions/perspectives, let me throw my hat in...
I am sure SpineDoc didn't mean it this way, but some of his comments below remind me of the plethora of uninformed posts that I read on message boards across the net that say the iPhone is just some pretty toy that was made for pre-pubescent girls. Or that the iPhone is not made (and therefore couldn't possibly be used) for 'business'...blah blah etc. I'm pretty sure most of the people making these claims and stances on the iPhone not being for business aren't even people that use their phone for
real business!! (I know SpineDoc didnt say anything about it's application to business, I'm not picking on him, his post just reminded me of others that took it much further)
Well, here's my rant for the week:
I am a 26 year old entrepreneur. I own 2 businesses - both in real estate. I
have a brokerage firm that represents buyers and sellers and that I have an investment company that buys, renovates, markets, and re-sells properties (AKA Flipping Houses). My investment firm is a multi-million dollar corporation and is one of the top 3 companies in the industry in my local market....
Here's the punch line: I BASICALLY RUN BOTH BUSINESSES (and my life) WITH MY (NON JAIL-BROKEN) iPHONE!!
There, I said it. In my former life (WM), I owned and heavily used the PPC 6600, 6700, 6800, and the Touch (6900).
I can say HANDS DOWN, that my iPhone has been 100x more stable than any of my WM devices.
It's amazing to me that different people with the same devices can have such varying experiences with them. My experience with the HTC Touch was HORRIBLE. Stability and reliability was a complete JOKE. It was pretty much the catalyst that drove me to the iPhone. It cost me a lot of money to switch (ETF with Sprint, new phones for me and the wife, higher monthly cell plans with ATT, etc.), but it has been WELL worth it.
My business is all about people and my non-jail broken device works wonderfully for me.
My priorities in a smart phone are:
1) Phone - HELLO?!?! This seems like a given, but at the at end of the day, how good is a smart
phone if the phone part isn't reliable?? I need to know that when my phone rings, I can count on pressing a button and ANSWERING THE CALL. This is something I didn't have with my HTC devices for the most part.
2) Email/SMS - I can actually type faster on the iPhone soft keyboard with auto correct than I could with any of my WM devices (including the Touch with Touch Pal). The responsiveness of the screen is not even comparable.
3) Web Surfing - do I need to even say anything about this? OK not having flash sucks, but the sites I use and frequent don't use flash, so I haven't had a problem. I can actually bid on HUD properties and view bid results with the built in safari browser. No WM device could do this.
4) Music - prior to the iPhone, I had to carry around my phone AND my iPod. Drop another tally in the convergence column. Storing and accessing my ENTIRE music library on my phone? PRICELESS.
5) The rest... - I have found some very useful apps in the app store. I quickly calculate mortgage payments with Loan Shark. I use AirShairing to view excel docs in the field (lockbox codes, sales prices, inventory, etc). I could keep going...the app store seems to be getting better and better to me.
In summary, for my tech-saavy, communication, and media centered lifestyle - the non-jailbroken iPhone is AMAZING.
Is it perfect? No. Nothing is perfect. I bet we could all sit around and dream up 'the perfect wife' or the perfect house or the perfect job...it doesn't exist!! We all take the good with the bad. Life is about compromises, priorities, and balance. For me, I can live without cut/paste, voice dialing, task syncing, tinkering with every setting, more freedom on apps, etc. Would I like (love) these things? SURE.
But is the non-jail broken iPhone just a 'regular cell phone with some bells and whistles'? I think not.
I do appreciate and respect other people's differing opinions and perspectives on the iPhone and JB vs Non JB. This was just my story....albeit a bit long winded...
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpineDoc
Well my main point was that unjailbroken the iphone is pretty much a regular cell phone with some bells and whistles. If that's how you use it then I can completely understand that, although I bet the WM tinkerer in you is always fighting you inside to jailbreak it!! I can picture the devil and angel on each shoulder both making their points.
I'll tell you what, I'm quite surprised at the instablity of the iphone unjailbroken. I get more surprise resets, freezing and unexplained slowdowns than I did with my HTC Touch. Jailbroken for some reason it actually runs more stable, don't ask me how. Or possibly it's just with every update Apple gets that much closer to being stable.
I still see most of the apps as, well maybe not useless, but just fluff. I mean how many tip calculators can you have? Seriously. There are many apps though that are useful, but I've found the real hardcore ones are JB apps. Take Cycorder for example, just to have video recording is hugely useful. Or Winterboard/Customize, not required, but for Apple to take away the creativity of changing the screen, icons, UI around is just daft.
In the end I am still undecided overall about WM versus the iphone. There are so many things I miss about WM, and so many limitations to the iphone where Apple just plain out missed the boat in a big way. BUT... the iphones screen is just so freakin nice, and of course with it jailbroken it really gives back a lot of what Apple took away with it's vanilla iphone.
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