You would think it was the "second coming" (I suppose it is in a way!). The buzz surrounding the new iPhone is incredible. It's been out for a week and a half and people are still going out of their minds trying to get this gadget. It's just a phone!
Of course I have thought about getting one. There's just this cool factor about having something so slim and, yet, so powerful in your pocket at all time. I currently carry a HTC S640 (Telus) smartphone which, compared to my old UTStarcom 6700 (a brick at best), feels thin. My students, of course, would tell me to dive on in a get an iPhone. Why not? I do own an 80GB iPod and I do have over 30GB in music and I do have many of my movies converted to Quicktime so that I can watch them.
The problem is that I would miss applications on my Windows Smartphone.
Yes, the iPhone now has the highly touted "App Store" for buying applications. But you have to admit that Windows Mobile has a good 3-5 years of solid applications on its side. That's not to mention that Windows Mobile has the one driver that I need that the iPhone does not yet have - the ability to tether a Bluetooth keyboard to it. The iPhone does have Bluetooth, but not the ability to let a keyboard work off it it - yet.
I'm also tied in directly to my school division's e-mail service. We use Groupwise and for that we need Intellisync in order to have it pushed to a smartphone. Currently there are clients for Windows Mobile (Professional and Standard) and Palm OS. No iPhone - yet. I rely heavily on the ability to get my e-mail when I need it. If a parent is to e-mail me with a question, I want to be able to reply immediately. Sure, I could do that on the iPhone by using Safari to login to my mobile mail site but I still don't have the notification unless I want a pricey text message plan. I also want all e-mail to pass in and out of my division's server, not be pushed around the internet to different services. That's security, folks, and it's important.
I also rely on the ability to view and edit Word and Excel documents on my phone. If I have a few spare moments I can pull it out and edit a document. I've actually been known to begin composing assignment for my students while waiting for meetings to start or just waiting in line at a store. The iPhone could allow me to do this by using an online "Cloud" application but that would then require me using my data plan. Currently in Canada, Rogers is your only choice and that data plan IS NOT unlimited. My data plan at Telus is. Telus iPhone anyone?
So there we have it. As much as I want that ultimate cool iPhone it's probably a year or so away from having what I need in order to do my daily business. If you can add Bluetooth keyboard support, an Intellisync client, ability to edit Word and Excel documents on the iPhone, and a reasonable unlimited data plan then we have a winner! Do I think it will come to pass that all of these things will be added? Absolutely! However, I'll watch from the sidelines during the growing pain months.
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