Getting Mobile

OK, We're about three or four weeks in now and I've had a good chance to thoroughly evaluate the iPhone.It will probably take a few articles to get all my ideas down but, to start with, lets look at how I came to own an IPhone.

I could have switched to the IPhone two years ago but didn't want to. Why? Well I just don't like Apple to be honest. The world seems to work perfectly well without Apple. Windows PCs do everything that you need a PC to do whilst apple PCs are bit funny about doing anything unless you want to do it the way Apple prescribe. For a while it was almost trendy to slag off windows but I stuck by them. Bill Gates et al were the ones who realised that computers needed to be simplified or they'd never catch on.


At school, 1 million years BC, or so it seems now, I actually remember that we were allowed to pick computing as an extra subject. (At this time you weren't allowed a calculator in maths.) This extra subject was something that you weren't sitting a certificate in but that gave you a break from your studies and made you a more rounded person. My mum had purchased a Sinclair ZX81 and I was interested in finding out how to get it to play space invaders. For three one hour classes at school I relentlessly plugged code in to a BBC micro. I had no real understanding of the code but, words can't describe, how rewarding it was at the end of three weeks to hit the enter key and have a circle appear on screen. My code had plotted that circle. It's easy to see why, at that point, the computer hadn't comfortably invaded the home.

During the late 80s and early 90s my job was as a retail manager. The PC was just about to change this world forever. It started with a barcode scanner and then, before you could blink, we had EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale). The till was recording what was in stock, what had been sold and what needed ordered. Managers with up to thirty years experience walked away from perfectly good jobs to join company's that hadn't yet invested in EPOS. They were payed to manage shops not as bloody scientists.

It was late into the decade (1998) before I was persuaded to part with over £1000 on a PC with the Just released windows 95 and office 97 (I think). A heavenly three gb memory and a massively limited and expensive subscription to dial up Internet. I was way ahead of most who, liked the idea, but had far more important ways to waste their money. 12 years later I can't think of anyone who doesn't own a PC or, at very least, a mobile that would put that first PC to shame.

For me I entered the mobile world quite late. Despite spearheading computers I was a bit reluctant about the whole mobile phone thing. I loved the gadget end of things but I didn't want people to be able to get hold of me whenever they wanted. (I'm still a bit like that now). I love text and am amazed with what phones can do but I'm not in love with being available.


The first phone came around 2000 and was an Erickson. Not a Sony Erickson but an Erickson. They hadn't got together yet. This mobile consisted mostly of a battery and could phone and text. The only really advanced thing was that it allowed you to write your own ring tone. I believe I'm the only one that ever did. (Jean Michelle Jarres' oxygen never sounded so good). The next few phones only came about because the phone companies were giving away great mobiles to get you to switch networks. The phones themselves just got smaller and smarter. Flip phones, slide phones etc.


Then it happened. When everyone else in the world went for the small and slim Motorola razor I went for the Sony Erickson smart phone of the time. Cant remember the exact model but this bad boy was the first of the true smart phones. Hewlett Packard were doing something pretty impressive with their PDA and windows and some new upstart, blackberry, were pushing emails but the Sony, using the symbian operating system, had advantages over them all. About the size of a cigarette packet it had a stylus to allow you to write texts. It had a working pocket version of MS Office (my iPhone still doesn't do this well). Using blue tooth, a GPS receiver and a dodgy version of tom tom I was the first person I knew to have satnav on my phone although Nokias were just about to do that bit better.

The funny thing was that people liked my phone but didn't love it. Even Sony Erickson seemed to spend more of their R&D dollars on creating a good MP3 player and camera phone than on exploring the true smart phone market. Most liked my phone but thought it was too big. When Nokia pulled out the N95 it seemed like history for my phone. Talking of good MP3 players...Apple were bringing out a phone.


When I was due for a new handset I was quite excited. Symbian was, and is, good but I'd found a handset with Windows. Windows had to be the way to go. Truly sync with your pc. Again a stylus but this time the writing recognition had improved to a point where you really could almost write natively. Some folk had gone for the newly released IPhone but what did they know. My HTC didn't even need a separate GPS receiver because this one was built in. I could surf the Internet and connect to wifi automatically I could tell you the weather or access google maps. The only downside was that my package didn't give me free Internet. We're only going back three years but most mobiles charged a ridiculous amount for the Internet and access was painfully slow. The HTC also had pocket office and could hold my MP3 library so why did I go for the iPhone?.....

Stay hooked to find out.

T