With all of the talk on Javamancy about the Apple [AAPL] iPhone, several of you have asked, “Steve, what phone are you using these days?”
This story is a somewhat long-ish one, and it starts several years ago but has reached an interesting twist recently, up until today, even. Let’s start this three-part story with the beginning…
The Setup
A few years ago, when my LG cellphone died and my Sony Clié PEG-S300 and Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 were starting to die as well, I began the feverish search for a suitable replacement. At the time, the concept of a “smartphone” had been bounced around, and rather than consider the RIM route (which had announced their BlackBerry 957 device at the 2000 JavaOne conference as the “Device of the Show”, which as a result had gotten my attention on the mobile angle), I chose the Palm Treo 650, which had already been out for several months. The decision was heavily influenced by my experience as a developer and an end user of Palm OS devices and the Java ME platform. There was still plenty of momentum behind Palm applications development, and Java ME still was a major player in the Palm OS arena. I had already created several useful internal tools that were readily deployed on Palm devices, so transferring my existing software collection to the Treo 650 was relatively straightforward.
The Premise
Fast forwarding to the first half of 2008–
Unfortunately, the Treo 650′s phone functions were gradually causing some serious performance issues with the device, including causing dramatic battery drain and the device lockups that required frequent rebooting. By the end of June this year, I’d gotten so frustrated with the Treo 650 that I began looking around for a replacement. Now, in early June, I had reported about the anticipation building in the pre-WWDC period; and I am certainly keenly interested in the iPhone platform as a developer, so considering the iPhone (not yet released when I began searching for a replacement) as a contender made sense.
But the time gap between the last several days in June to July 11 was quite considerable, and without any guarantee of iPhone supply, selecting other alternatives was required…
Other Alternatives
The options I was considering were:
- BlackBerry device
- Windows Mobile device
- Palm/Garnet OS device
- really cheap cellphone on the AT&T network, then upgrade to the iPhone 3G
- let the Treo 650 die, then acquire the iPhone 3G
As I said earlier, the iPhone 3G supply issue was certainly problematic– and in retrospect, I made the correct decision in not trying to get the iPhone 3G at its launch, given the huge demand for it, including all of the people who stood in lines around the world trying to snag one at its worldwide launch.
But while getting an iPhone 3G immediately was ruled out, getting one later on wasn’t. But then, unlike the Second Coming of the iPhone was still pending, the presence of RIM’s BlackBerry was still strong. And the promise of Windows Mobile smartphones as a viable replacement for the Treo 650 would potentially mean better support for certain aspects of a Windows-driven integration. And, of course, given my past history with the Palm OS platform, find the most advanced Palm OS based smartphone has some merit.
The Next Parts
The second part of this story begins with the exploration of various available smartphones and the networks that they would work on. And the final part of this story reveals the final verdict (which you already know about, sort of) and the conclusion.
More Reading
- Clié (Wikipedia entry)
- 2008 JavaOne Conference
- JavaOne (Wikipedia entry)
- Treo 650 (Wikipedia entry)
- Zaurus (Wikipedia entry)
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