[Ti] iPhone, Treo & Steve - random thoughts...

[Rod Duncan]

In Canada, we have a couple of CDMA carriers - Telus and Bell. The 
GSM carrier is Rogers.

This month I am just finishing a 3-year contract with Telus. I had 
already decided to sit on the fence and see what way the cell wind 
was blowing. I recently purchased a no contract Treo 700P with a 
guaranteed 30-day money back return policy. Was curious to test it 
out and didn't think I would keep it - now I'm sure it's going back. 
(Telus tried to sell me into the big discount price with the 
multi-year commitment. Turns out the Treo is returnable but the 
commitment sticks. Needless to say, I bought the phone outright and 
opened it carefully with returning always... always in mind.) While 
the Treo has a bevy of Mac software and utilities - it needs them. 
(and some of them not cheap either) The Treo is *at best* unstable 
and generally unfriendly. Sure you could learn to live with its 
warts. (remember OS 7 and OSX beta?) However, I've crashed the Treo 
more often than a Yugo with four bald tires. Apologies to the legion 
of loyal Yugo owners - all two of you. At least Blackberries are 
stable - they just don't like playing with Mac's.

Comparatively, I was given a Garmin c530 touch screen automotive GPS 
for Christmas - I know, spoiled. It worked fabulously out of the box. 
Never even looked at the manual. You would of thought Apple had built 
it. Very cool. It just works. Granted, Garmin has been slow to offer 
Mac software but I was able to update the software using Virtual PC 
and the new Intel machines would laugh and do it in the background. 
Soon baby... soon. The Treo and its Palm software? In my best Bart 
voice, "Groan..."

If the Treo and its *suspect* Palm software is the best Smartphone 
for the Mac then waiting for the OSX version of iPhone is a 
no-brainer. Sure we can nitpick HD size and this and that but look at 
what you are comparing it to? Beam me up Scotty versus sitting 
banging a rock. By the time they get to offer it in Canada it will be 
well into a subsequent version and most of the early adopter's bugs 
will be well known and addressed.

Job's has already called it an iPhone so regardless what it ends up 
being officially called, he's already pulled down millions in free 
advertising. Call it anything you want now, it will always be known 
as the iPhone. The master orchestrates as only he can. You gotta' 
love it. From a time when we borrowed $150M pocket lint from Mr. 
Gates to protect an Apple platform just hanging on - to now. He takes 
visionary to a new version. Doesn't hurt that form and function are a 
mantra at Apple.

Always nice when Apple raises the bar... again...

R.


>  > From: John Griffin <jwegriffin at mac.com>."
>>  <titanium at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
>>  Subject: Re: [Ti] OT: iPhone - shock ?
>>
>>  One other thing that one has to keep in mind is that Cingular, claims
>>  to have the fewest dropped calls. However according to Consumers
>>  Reports it is among the worst and least reliable carriers in North
>>  America.
>>
>>  Why not Verizon? It is the top rated carrier in North America right
>>  now (again, according to Consumers Reports).
>>
>>  jg
>:
>
>That really has nothing to do with it.  It is not about the carriers...it is
>about the tech.  Verizon is CDMA and most of the world is GSM with SIM
>cards.  So, apple is obviously interested in dealing with the majority of
>the market, globally.  Cingular and T-Mobile are GSM in the states.  So,
>they chose Cingular and they are GSM and the largest in the US as well.
>
>Apple might choose to build a CDMA version, there are various
>prognostications on that, but for now, they chose GSM, for obvious reasons.
>
>The US and Japan have some CDMA carriers...and a few other countries have
>small CDMA based cell carriers here and there, not many,  but the vast
>majority of the world operates via GSM.
>
>Sorry..but maybe apple may choose to do a CDMA phone.  I don't think so from
>what I have heard, but who knows.
>
>Ross, correct me if I am wrong.
>
>Cheers
>
>
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