12/15/08 – I Jump on the Bandwagon

I don’t exactly know if I will look back on this as a red-letter day yet or not.  It  always takes a little time and perspective to make that determination.  But I can tell you this: I just bought an iPhone 3G, and it just might change the way I view mobile computing forever.  It’s that good.

This is the first Apple product that I have ever owned.  I hadn’t touched an Apple “Anything” since, well, probably, my last day of grade school.  We used these old Apple IIe computers to learn Logo on.  Fun, in an 80’s kind of way.

I’ve owned several Windows Mobile devices in the past, and I’m just now severing my relationship with a Samsung Blackjack II, which is a top of the line Blackberry-type device that runs Windows Mobile 6.1.  I started looking into a replacement phone because I liked the look and feel of a touch-screen device.  I kept wanting something “iPhone-like” that ran Windows Mobile, and came close to getting the HTC Fuze (HTC Touch Pro) because it was a Windows Mobile device.  But I finally realized, I didn’t want something “iPhone-like.”  What I wanted was an iPhone.

But here’s The Thing: (And I really mean The Thing)  The iTunes App Store.  That is what single-handedly made my decision easy to switch to the iPhone.  The App Store is the Killer App.  I’ve had iTunes installed for a while, and I’ve occasionally bought an album or two from the iTunes Store, so I thought I’d poke around and see what all was available for the iPhone.  I truly had no idea of the volume of the stuff available! And all in one place! With a WM6 device, I had to scour the Internet and hope to find the software I’m looking for.  And most of the time I end up overpaying for some simple software that doesn’t work exactly right, or was built for a different screen resolution, or one of a hundred different things…  The App Store has everything I’ve been trying to get for my old WM6 devices at a fraction of the cost, and available immediately Over The Air!  No PC needed.  Wow!  (Yes, I know, you can download and install .cab files right on a WM6 device, OTA and all.  I’ve done that.  But the experience is nowhere near the same.)

I’ve just started delving into the App Store to see what is available, and I’m amazed.  I’ll probably be blogging more about some of them soon.  (Like Ocarina… just outstanding!)

So, the bigger question remains… Is this the start of something? Will I become a convert? A Steve Jobs cheerleader? A MacHead? Eh… I think it’s a little early to predict that will be the case.  But I was always an ardent supporter of the Amiga, so I already know how to Think Different.