vvebsta
macrumors 6502a
yeah the 3GS was really lacking in my opinion... seemed like they were holding back
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yeah the 3GS was really lacking in my opinion... seemed like they were holding back
CQd44
macrumors 6502a
I'm expecting someone here to say "but it's not an iphone why would you do that" or something of the sort.
vvebsta
macrumors 6502a
it all boils down to 3 things: OS, network, & app store
OS: Apple is currently unbeat
Network: Verizon is usually the consensus of best coverage
App Store: Apple has 10x more apps (10k Android market vs 100k App Store)
Soo Apple wins 2 outta 3 unless you are within wifi and then the skype app makes its it 3 outta 3 🙂
Edit: actually multitasking is pretty darn important too, and iphone still doesn't have it
OS: Apple is currently unbeat
Network: Verizon is usually the consensus of best coverage
App Store: Apple has 10x more apps (10k Android market vs 100k App Store)
Soo Apple wins 2 outta 3 unless you are within wifi and then the skype app makes its it 3 outta 3 🙂
Edit: actually multitasking is pretty darn important too, and iphone still doesn't have it
Stella
macrumors G3
[/QUOTE]
My rant? No, I was answering a question - of why Symbian is better than iPhone ( from my point of view ) I'm sorry if you ay not like the response - but thats your problem not mine 🙂
Actually, I could enjoy web browsing with a pre 2007 smartphone, with my SE - which had a large screen - and in fact, on my Nokia. They both worked extremely well and met all my needs. In fact,today, I get a *better* mobile web browsing on my existing phone than on the current iPhone!
SE used Opera, which was, and still is, a great mobile web browser. You seem to have this idea that smartphones were totally un-usability and the iPhone changed it all: this is absolutely false. Like I said previously, I had no usability issues with either UIQ 2.x or S60. The iPhone has a good UI, that cannot be denied and has bought about increased usability. However, that said, the image of pre smartphones being not usable, is false, like I've already mentioned.
I would ask, have you ever used a UIQ 2.x device - because "saying yes, and it sucked", is all too easy without having done so.
As for multi-tasking, I have never had a problem with running more than one application.. very little slow downs and definitely not on an underpowered phone. And Yes, I absolutely DID need a reason to run more than 1 application at one time. You don't know my requirements for doing so... so you are merely jumping to conclusions.
I'm very sorry you can't get your head around the fact that usable smartphone DID exist before the iPhone appeared. The first version of the iPhone I could not call a smartphone because you couldn't even install native applications - that came later. Hell, you couldn't even copy and paste or use the iPhone as a navigation GPS - no turn by turn capability until this year!!
If I bought an iPhone from Europe I would pay a very hefty inflated price. Does the European iPhone even support the 3G frequencies used in north America? If not, then there's really not a lot of point in buying a European iPhone in the first place. Using Edge is not a fun experience for large amounts of data.
There was no reason why Apple couldn't release SIM unlocked phones in all countries outside of the u.s. I would find it difficult to believe that AT&T would cry and demand that all non u-s iPhones to be locked and Apple give in.
It was Apple's decision to release the iPhones on an exclusive, SIM locked basis. The iPhone was popular enough by the time it was released outside of the u.s all cell phone carriers would snap it up in an instant.
If I was to exchange my Symbian phone for an iPhone I would be actually *downgrading*, since the iPhone does not have the capability to fulfill my needs.
For some people, the iPhone is all they need, which is fantastic, for others, this won't be the case. It is down to each individual's needs.
Point of order.
Yes there was a very good reason and, you may be surprised, it had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with AT&T.
Apple made reciprocal licensing agreements with the international mobile network operators through whom it sold the iPhone. In the UK that operator was O2. Part of that agreement was that O2 would have exclusive rights and that at the same time Apple would not undermine those rights by selling SIM-free. The only exception were a couple of EU member states where such an exclusivity deal is illegal and Apple were forced, in law, to sell SIM-free - but these went at a very high premium over SIM-locked.
Now that the UK O2 agreement with Apple is coming to an end the prospect of SIM-free availability direct from Apple is very real.
O2 have already stated that they will unlock iPhones as soon as they are being sold by other UK operators. Orange will begin selling them in November. So the implication is that as of November O2 will unlock all UK-sourced iPhones for a fee of £15 (GBP15).
NB: In the UK, O2 and Vodafone do not SIM-lock their contract handsets. All UK operators will permanently remove the SIM-lock for a small fee. Vodafone will retrospectively remove SIM-lock for free.
1) I don't care about the OS, but I want it to allow multi-tasking and be stable. The iPhone fails on both counts.
2) The network is key.
3) I don't care about the app store. Also, "quantity" is much less important than "quality" when it comes to the apps store... and considering some of the apps I most desire and wanted have been banned by Apple, I actually have a better chance of getting quality apps via Android.
There are really three things I care about:
1) The Network.
2) How well does it work as a phone.
3) Does it have the best browser?
That's it... but you may be addicted to iFart or a similar app.
DakotaGuy
macrumors 601
I'm in a very unique situation and not really sure what I am going to do. Right now I have Alltel service and have had it for years. Alltel and Verizon have excellent networks in South Dakota (no joke people actually do live here and enjoy life here).
Anyhow when Verizon bought out Alltel they were forced to divest markets where they had limited competition. AT&T is intending to purchase my market if and when it is approved by the Government. I am sure it will be approved, but the process is really slow and a bunch of the smaller players are trying to stop it. My contract with Alltel is finished next June. I would assume by then it will be approved, but as far as switching over the network goes I doubt it will be completed by then. At that point I can basically do two things 1) Stay with my old Alltel equipment until AT&T sets up shop and changes over the network and then get an iPhone or 2) Move over to Verizon and get a Droid in June.
There are two things that I am considering though. 1) I know Verizon has a good network here and on my Alltel phone I am running on EVDO Rev A about 90% of the time even way out in the country either on Verizon or Alltel towers. or 2) Wait to get an iPhone and take a gamble on the network.
After seeing how AT&T treats most rural areas for 3G coverage I am not getting a warm fuzzy over the transition. I have an iPod Touch so I know that the iPhone is good, but I am leery about AT&T providing a decent network. I guess I might be in the minority here, but I am REALLY excited about the possibility that people who don't live in large metro areas will have access to this technology with the new Droid. I have a few months to see how it is all going to play out, but I just don't have confidence in AT&T to bring a good 3G network to the rural areas.
Anyhow when Verizon bought out Alltel they were forced to divest markets where they had limited competition. AT&T is intending to purchase my market if and when it is approved by the Government. I am sure it will be approved, but the process is really slow and a bunch of the smaller players are trying to stop it. My contract with Alltel is finished next June. I would assume by then it will be approved, but as far as switching over the network goes I doubt it will be completed by then. At that point I can basically do two things 1) Stay with my old Alltel equipment until AT&T sets up shop and changes over the network and then get an iPhone or 2) Move over to Verizon and get a Droid in June.
There are two things that I am considering though. 1) I know Verizon has a good network here and on my Alltel phone I am running on EVDO Rev A about 90% of the time even way out in the country either on Verizon or Alltel towers. or 2) Wait to get an iPhone and take a gamble on the network.
After seeing how AT&T treats most rural areas for 3G coverage I am not getting a warm fuzzy over the transition. I have an iPod Touch so I know that the iPhone is good, but I am leery about AT&T providing a decent network. I guess I might be in the minority here, but I am REALLY excited about the possibility that people who don't live in large metro areas will have access to this technology with the new Droid. I have a few months to see how it is all going to play out, but I just don't have confidence in AT&T to bring a good 3G network to the rural areas.
If AT&T is taking over Alltel's old network (assuming Verizon is dumping it or has to sell it), it might be decent. If they're building out a new network, forget about it.
They can't provide decent coverage in NYC and San Francisco. You think rural South Dakota is something they'll be focused on?
DakotaGuy
macrumors 601
They do get Alltel's towers, however Alltel is a native CDMA EVDO carrier. Alltel is the GSM roaming partner here, but it's a weak network focused only on the larger cities, I90 and I29. None of the GSM is 3G so that will need to be changed over to be competitive with Verizon.
Maybe it will be great and blow my mind, but like you said when AT&T can't even provide decent service in the largest cities in the US I doubt they will put any focus on us. I will wait until my contract is up and take a look at the iPhone and AT&T, but it's likely that Verizon and the Droid might be my safest bet.
Goona
macrumors 68020
Goona
macrumors 68020
When the iphone was released, I started seeing them everywhere. Heck I even saw iphones even before they were officially released starting from the summer of 2007 in Toronto. I have never seen anyone using an Android phone in Toronto except in Rogers stores or Best Buy.
CQd44
macrumors 6502a
I've seen a few android phones out in the wild outside of my family. I don't see a whole lot of iPhones either, but that just might be because of the socio-economic status of most people in my area.
mixel
macrumors 68000
Interesting device for sure! I like this a lot, its good to see people trying different things.
I wish Sony had followed through and brought back some sort of Clie UX50, but running android.. And as a phone. Actually it'd be a lot the Droid.. I love quirky devices if they're well executed.
The people saying this will be forgotten when the next iphone comes out.. Thats not the point really, you could say the same about the early iphones. The thing I like is there's a relatively open, not MS owned platform that's progressing rapidly and offering a viable alternative. I probably prefer the iphone but its much better that there's variety.
If this particular device is forgotten about - another Android based phone will take the torch, and so on. It doesn't have to be all things to all people, or an "iphone killer". There's room in the market for more than one device. It's almost as bad as the console "wars".. Credit where it's due!
I wish Sony had followed through and brought back some sort of Clie UX50, but running android.. And as a phone. Actually it'd be a lot the Droid.. I love quirky devices if they're well executed.
The people saying this will be forgotten when the next iphone comes out.. Thats not the point really, you could say the same about the early iphones. The thing I like is there's a relatively open, not MS owned platform that's progressing rapidly and offering a viable alternative. I probably prefer the iphone but its much better that there's variety.
If this particular device is forgotten about - another Android based phone will take the torch, and so on. It doesn't have to be all things to all people, or an "iphone killer". There's room in the market for more than one device. It's almost as bad as the console "wars".. Credit where it's due!
What is great about the iPhone OS? Without jailbreaking you can't customize it, you can't mulitask.. the UI is aging quickly.
What's great about the iPhone OS is the apps, and I can only imagine as more and more Android devices come out we'll see more and more developers focus on Android.
This is an amazing device and I'm absolutely sold on it, the only thing that makes me want to hold back is knowing that when Verizon releases their 4G pretty soon and there will possibly be a version of it or likely an even better Android phone.
This is all coming from an iPhone 3G user. I just feel totally boxed in by edge and AT&T. If the iPhone was on Verizon, I'd consider them equals.. but having Verizon puts the Droid over the edge.
And don't give me that "Don't blame Apple" crap, Apple signed the deal with Cingular willingly and knowingly that they were awful, and shocker they are still awful today!
What's great about the iPhone OS is the apps, and I can only imagine as more and more Android devices come out we'll see more and more developers focus on Android.
This is an amazing device and I'm absolutely sold on it, the only thing that makes me want to hold back is knowing that when Verizon releases their 4G pretty soon and there will possibly be a version of it or likely an even better Android phone.
This is all coming from an iPhone 3G user. I just feel totally boxed in by edge and AT&T. If the iPhone was on Verizon, I'd consider them equals.. but having Verizon puts the Droid over the edge.
And don't give me that "Don't blame Apple" crap, Apple signed the deal with Cingular willingly and knowingly that they were awful, and shocker they are still awful today!
DakotaGuy
macrumors 601
I sort of have a feeling that Verizon will have their 4G network up and running in many areas before AT&T even finishes deploying their 3G network across the entire US.
Anyhow competition is good. Maybe some Apple fans would like to see the iPhone be the only phone and AT&T be the only network, but I'd love to see Verizon, Google and Motorola give Apple a run for their money. A lot of Apple fans are laughing off this device... I'd say not so quick. There is a LOT of interest all over the Internet for the Droid. The most I have seen since the iPhone came out.
I don't think that we fully understand why VZ needs this MOTO Droid. They cannot have the iPhone so this is the next best thing. I use iPhone and love it. I also have a VZ account and have nothing to compare to the iPhone so I will also get the Droid. Until VZ has a chance to get the iPhone, the Android platform is the closest that they will get.
Unprocessed1
macrumors 65816
The Droid has the potential to make Android a house hold Verizon, very much like the iPhoneOS (AT&t) and BB OS are. If this phone were on T-Mobile (G1) or Sprint, no one would be talking about it.
mrgreen4242
macrumors 601
It's hard to find numbers on it, but the best I can find call it around 850k as of mid September. The Pre was released in Europe this last week, and they are "expecting" to sell another 750k or so worldwide in the first quarter of the fiscal year (Oct through Dec). That doesn't include Pixi sales, which I think are going to be pretty decent - it's a cheaper handset being marketed at the Centro crowd, which sold beyond most people expectations. It goes on sale in less than a month supposedly.
Add that to Verizon getting the Pre in early 2010 and I think by the Pre's 1st birthday we'll see 3+ million webOS handsets out there. As long as the app catalog gets some decent developers on board I think Palm will make it by and do pretty well all said and done.
The iPhone, at launch was definitely aimed at the RAZR et al more than the WinMo or RIM. There was no apps, no Exchange integration, etc. It was clearly not meant to be a business phone, and without apps it wasn't really a "smartphone". It has a good browser and it combined your trendy phone (RAZR) and your iPod. It grew into THE smartphone after a year, though.
webOS is Palm's last gasp, though. Even if they end up having to cut way, way back I think they could survive as a software company. webOS is Linux based and the apps are not compiled, they're HTML/CSS/JS based. You could compile the system onto any hardware, within reason, and the apps would still just work regardless. So, even if the Pre/Pixi don't make it, I could see them licensing the OS out to handset makers like Moto, HTC, etc.
That's one reason I think they went with the HTML/CSS/JS SDK... completely platform agnostic so they have lots of options looking forward.
The Droid could be on Sprint and T-Mobile if there is no exclusivity for VZ simply because it is also compatible with GSM/UMTS (W-CDMA) networks. We'll no doubt see the Droid out in global markets within weeks or months of its general availability in the USA.
Unprocessed1
macrumors 65816
It is interesting that it doesn't seem to be an exclusivity deal for this phone, considering it's going to be Verizon's flagship Google (and possibly overall) phone.
That may well be a US-centric viewpoint but let me assure you that by the time the iPhone hit Europe the RAZR was a distant memory. We had moved substantially along from it, RAZR handsets could be had on eBay for a few tens of GBP.
The iPhone entered the European market in competition with WinMo, RIM and Nokia N-series - at that time the N95 and N95-8GB were the one to be seen with. Every man and his dog had one (sound familiar?). For Nokia it was a glorious time, and they were bullet-proof 😀 ... The iPhone was just about to change all of that.
But Nokia were complacent also, because each new N-series device was a minor iteration's improvement over the predecessor handset. The N95-8GB was pretty much state of the art, and with a fixed 8GB of SD (I think a lot of people forget that when criticising the iPhone, it wasn't the first to do this).
However, it was clear from the outset that Apple had intentions to deliver 3-rd party Apps and Exchange integration. The early demonstrations of the product made that abundantly clear, although the delivery fell way short of what we were being shown. It took several point and a couple of full releases to get us to where we are today. But that is only to be expected from an Agile development. Get the core product out and develop the additional functional components later. The plan was always there.
In terms of development Apple have broken new ground, making free full releases of the OS. That is unprecedented against WinMo where, for example, the major functional releases are paid-for if even offered at all. Android follows the Apple philosophy, and so the buyer benefits from significant major developments without having to re-invest in a new handset just to get the latest OS.
Take-up of Android is possibly more pervasive in Europe and elsewhere than it is in the USA. I do think that now one of your home-grown manufacturers has built one that you'll see a widespread education and adoption there.
hiimamac
macrumors 6502a
Let's see my phone as AT&T customer fir 10 years and iPhone I might dump them and getba better plan now thst my iPhone is jsilbroken. Free teethering, flash, and gv mobile but flash means all tv shows free. On normal iphone that means $$2.99 to $1.99 per episode. So maybe. Same reason no dvr on apple tv, apples greed want us to buy what we can watch for free.
It seems you have no clue about the mobile phone market, especially not in Europe. The sim lock technique itself is very old and was frequently applied in the past by CARRIERS to make sure people would use their subsidized or even free handset together with an overpriced calling plan.
The carriers decide which phones they are selling. No one buys a phone without a contract, so Apple needed to please the carriers in order to get a foothold in a market that was new to them. The exclusivity agreements were born.
Do you really think Apple liked those deals? It harmed their sales. You are blinded by your iPhone dislike to blame it on Apple.
And web browsing with Opera better than iPhone. Yeah right. That's just nonsense.
It's not silly.
Your analogy is.
Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 are very often compared based on the number of games available
What does the old PS2 have to do with it?