A friend of mine wrote to me this week asking my thoughts on the Storm vs. the iPhone. This reminds me of cold calls from business school. No matter what the case, class or situation, the answer was always the same – “it depends.”
If you have been reading this blog, you will know that I have a Storm. But you might also pick up a love for the iPhone. As a true consultant, I made a list of the features of each and made my selection. This method should work for just about any phone so feel free to insert any phone you are considering. Everyone’s feature list will be slightly different, but here are some major categories to consider:
The Network – While all of the phones are cool, at the end of the day the device is a interesting brick without network coverage. All of the major networks (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) will have decent coverage in some parts of the country. The question is how are they where you live. In the Washington, DC area, and most of the north east United States, VZW will have the best coverage. However, the true test is how is the coverage where you will use it most such as your office, home and commute between the two? If you don’t get great coverage in one of the areas but still want a cool phone, check into Femtocells. (Read my post Femtocells – Your Own Cell Tower) VZW has released theirs and I know that AT&T was working on one.
In addition to coverage, you need to think about what network most of your friends, families and co-workers use? Having the free mobile-to-mobile minutes doubles my minutes of use (MOUs) each month. This is not only important for you, but also for the people calling you.
Features – The next major area to consider are features. Make a list of all things that are really important to you. If synchronizing to your iTunes library is important, that may swing you to a iPhone or Palm Pre. If multitasking is important (being able to switch between editing an email, calendar entry, and that hot new application is important…) then you may want to move towards the Blackberry. If your organization uses the Blackberry Enterprise Server, then your choice is made for you. Are you a Mac user at home or the office – advantage iPhone…
Applications – Are there any applications that are only available on one platform vs. the other? Then your decision may also be made for you if you think that it is an important application.
You will notice that I didn’t list price here. For any smart phone platform, you will be paying a little up front but the kicker is the monthly service contract…
So as you can see, there are many factors that will push you to one side or the other. I strongly advise taking advantage of the carrier’s 30 day trial period before porting your number. This will allow you to try out the features of the platform and the coverage areas. All you will be responsible for will be the usage during the trial period. And also strongly consider getting the insurance. I never purchased the insurance until I found my new PDA (list price without subsidy $600) dropped into the toilet by Not Me and I Didn’t Do It, two frequent visitors to any house with kids…
Tags: applications, at&T wireless, blackberry, iphone, Palm Pre, storm, verizon wireless
