Rethinking the 3G iPhone

July 07, 2008 12:29 AM Filed in: Random Thoughts
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Posted By: Katie

Ok, let’s get this out of the way up front. We all know that there is a near 100% chance that I will buy a new 3g iPhone in the near future. In fact, I think the chances are very high I’ll buy it on opening day or that weekend. My plan was to be in line with the rest of the crazies (and I mean that in the best possible way!) waiting for the iPhone to go on sale. But as the time draws closer to the July 11th launch date, I’ve been doing some serious thinking about the iPhone 3g and whether it’s something I want to rush right out and buy or whether it’s something that’s best to wait a bit on.

There are three big draws to the iPhone 3g for me.
  1. 16GB vs. 8GB - I only have an 8GB model so double the space is a bonus for me.
  2. 3G - Faster data speeds are going to be nice, I use the iPhone for data a lot!
  3. GPS - I’m probably going to buy a GPS device for my car within the next year and if the iPhone could take care of this for me, that would be a big bonus.
  4. Geek Cred - Come on, admit it. Having the latest and the greatest is cool.

But, there are currently a lot of unknowns with he iPhone 3G and some pretty big disadvantages. At the time I write this blog post, we’re still 4 days away from launch, so it’s possible some of these big unknowns will be answered. But as I sit here now, here are the major disadvantages and unknowns that give me pause.
  1. New AT&T price plans - I’m okay with paying $30 a month more for 3G data. But the $5 extra you’ll have to pay for the 200 SMS messages that use to come free and the $18 “activation fee” really leave a sour taste in my mouth. At a minimum, I’ll be paying $15 a month more for phone service than I currently am. Now, I do understand that the iPhone is significantly cheaper than the previous model, and that does mean a lot.
  2. Exchange Support - This falls into the “unknown” category, there’s lots of speculation out there. My law firm uses Exchange for email and has not enabled IMAP access so I cannot get my work email on my iPhone. In the beginning, this wasn’t that big of an issue, but as I’ve taken on more cases and more responsibility, this will be come a bigger deal. (Now, we’re only talking about 20 - 25 emails a day, but they’re typically fairly important emails.) The guy at the Apple store tells me that in order to get Exchange to work on my iPhone 3G I’ll have to be on a $45 “business plan” from AT&T. Though after some questioning he admitted he was only speculating. If I have to pay for a $45 data plan plus $5 for SMS messages, I’m looking at raising my current bill by over $30 a month or $720 over a two year contract. The only “official” word we have is a blurb on the AT&T website that mentions Exchange being a “business” feature.” So the big question still remains, if all I want is Exchange support for my work email on my iPhone, am I going to have to move over to a more expensive business data plan? Will Exchange work on my current $20 a month data plan with my 1st Gen iPhone and software version 2.0? Will AT&T even know that I’m running exchange? Considering Steve Jobs has touted one of the biggest features of iPhone 2.0 firmware as being Exchange support, my personal guess, is that it will work without a business plan on either the 1st Gen or 3G iPhone. I hope that AT&T will have no way of knowing or caring what type of traffic is coming in and out of the iPhone. But, this is a big enough issue that it makes me want to hold off and see.
  3. 16GB Only - I was shocked when the new iPhones came out and there wasn’t a 32GB version. I wouldn’t mind paying $499 for a 32GB model. A 16GB iPhone is better, but I still have to carry around my 60GB iPod to use in my car and to carry all my tunes. If that iPod were to die tomorrow, I’d have to go out and replace it with an iPod Classic. Apple is notorious for having an iPod event in September, so my guess is that we’ll see a 32GB version of the iPhone within 3-4 months.
  4. Is 3G That Much Faster?- I’ll admit, I really want faster data, but there is a question really as to how much faster in real world situations 3G will be over EDGE. My guess is it’s not going to be as fast as we think and certainly not as fast as we hope. It might be a good idea to spend an hour or so in my local Apple store playing with an iPhone 3G and comparing it to my current iPhone in terms of speed.
  5. Will the GPS Be That Useful- GPS is cool, but I just took a trip up to Atlanta and borrowed my brother’s Garmin Nuvi for the trip. It cost less than $200 on Amazon and had audible turn-by-turn directions and interactive maps. GPS on the iPhone doesn’t look like it’s going to offer near these features and in the car for navigation purposes is probably where I’d want to use the GPS features a majority of the time. Should Garmin or another big brand come out with an iPhone App that turns the 3G iPhone into a full fledged GPS product, I’d be all for that. But based on what I’ve seen of the demos, it just looks like Google Maps with a blinking dot. Again, something probably better to hold off and wait and read the reviews on.
  6. Firmware 2.0 Does Most of What I Want- Yes I’m interested in faster data speeds, I’d like the extra storage, and the GPS looks cool. But besides from those hardware improvements, of which I’ve already raised questions/concerns about before, everything else is in the software. Firmware 2.0 is going to be available free on my current iPhone and will probably serve me just fine for the time being. I’m looking forward to the App store and am sure a handful of applications alone will bring a lot more functionality to my iPhone. Assuming Exchange support works as I hope it will, my current iPhone will probably serve me just fine. I absolutely love my current iPhone, it’s changed the way I use a mobile phone and the computer in such a positive way, do the extra hardware features really matter that much? How often is EDGE really “too slow” and how often would true GPS be needed?
  7. AT&T- I’ll admit most of my issues with the new iPhone are not Apple issues. I’m less than thrilled with the new AT&T pricing plan and really like the plan and features I already have. I’ve been overall pleased with AT&T as a carrier but my loyalty to AT&T ends at the iPhone. Since the new iPhone will be subsidized through AT&T I have concerns that next year when the next version of the iPhone rolls around we’re going to be “ineligible for upgrade” and end up trowing out a few hundred extra bucks to upgrade. Apple tends to be on a yearly upgrade cycle and AT&T’s contracts run for two years. Now, I love the new lower price of the 3G iPhone and I think they’re going to fly off the shelves. But, I’m not so sure this particular version of the iPhone has significant enough advances from the 1st generation product to make that substantial a difference that I need to run out and upgrade. Sure, we’d all like to have the latest and greatest, but I don’t upgrade my computer every year just because Apple comes out with a new model, why should I upgrade my phone?

So, there you have it, only time will tell what happens. My hope is that in the coming days before the iPhone 3G launch we’ll have more information and a lot of these unknowns will be come non-issues. But my advice (and I’m not so sure I’m going to follow it) is to hold off for a bit. Wait and see as the reviews come in and make a decision at that point. The 1st Gen iPhone is a revolutionary product, second only to the 3G iPhone. Maybe having the second best mobile phone in the world is good enough for the time being.
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