Verizon iphone what do you think?

I waited patiently :roll: through most of 2009 for the often-rumored Verizon iPhone. When the Droid ads came out, it was pretty clear that there wasn't going to be an Apple/Verizon deal anytime soon. So, I bought a Droid on the first day they were available... love it! The only app I'd like that isn't available for the Droid is the Navionics chartplotter app, and they are saying that one will be coming for the Droid. As much as I lusted after an iPhone, I would not be in any hurry to swap my Droid for one. It's been 6 months with the Droid now, and I continue to be delighted with it.

In our house, Mac is king. We have an iMac and a Powerbook Pro; an iPod Video, and an iPod Touch. I don't much like to shop, but I really enjoy browsing through an Apple Store. If not for this Droid, I'm sure I would have been one of those lined up for an iPad.

So, no Verizon iPhone in '09, not likely for '10, if that link is accurate, it will be 2012, even though there are rumblings of the phone already being built. (Cue the music... "Someday, my prince will come... :note :note ) Every new phone wants to be the "iPhone killer" - I think we can all live peacefully together... little children of the world holding hands, singing in harmony... Droid and iPhone able to live side-by-side. (Cue more music... "Imagine all the people... :note :note )

Droid does. :wink:

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
on a related note
is Verizon and Google are working on a tablet

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15065000? ... ck_check=1

Check David Pogue's NYT' column
A past posting stated that Google is working very hard to woo iPhone developers to develop new apps and port their iPhone apps to the Droid OS.
I dont see a downside with a Droid. They are free in our area with a 2 yr contract and $30/month data plan which is less $ than ATT. They will not be #2 for long
I am a Verizon customer and going to Droid at the next upgrade cycle. Now if Verizon stock will jump to the high 30's or low 40's
I will be very happy.

sorry didnt turn on the GPS and off course
 
Jim, I am going to have to start paying attention to the Droid now, but I have almost a year to go on my Storm contract. I had one of the first Googlephone G1s when I was with T-Mobile and I liked it OK, but it was not that much better than the BlackBerry. When I switched to Verizon they only had BlackBerry smartphones so that is why I went with the original Storm. Then I lost the Storm and replaced it with the Storm 2 (Verizon could have screwed me over on that but instead the salesman took pity on me and made me a great deal on the Storm 2 -- which is awesome.)

Did you do any comparison shopping between the Storm 2 and the Droid? I am curious as to your conclusions. Particularly am interested in the Droid experience as compared to the iPhone -- I assume you have had occasion to play with them side by side? How about the monthly costs -- same or different?

Warren
 
Hi Warren,

Hope you're healing fast. I have no experience with the Storm 2, so I can't speak to that. The iPhone and Droid are pretty similar. There are little differences that seem to change with each update. I originally thought the "pinch to zoom" feature of the iPhone was the greatest, but now that Droid has that, I find I still use the "press the +" to zoom to fit the format to the page. You can multi-task on the Droid, but I understand the iPhone 4 will have that feature. Otherwise, the deciding factor for me is the Verizon network. Get on any of the phone forums and you will read scads about the AT&T problems and lack of coverage. We have had very few places where our Verizon coverage has been less than great.

I thought the Droid was going to be a "close second" to the iPhone, but I no longer feel that way. It does everything I hoped for and a bunch more that I had no idea about before getting it. When that one Navionics app becomes available, I'm done. :wink: Well, probably not. But there are thousands of apps available for the Droid. It's a lot like the old PC vs Mac software debate of many years ago... there is SO MUCH more software available for the PC... but, do you really want or need 50 different word processing programs? :roll: I have the essentials: WEATHER (4 different apps), electronic compass, Where (which gets me info on gas prices, movies, prices, etc, etc), Shop Savvy (that allows me to scad a barcode to see if the price is competitive), a guitar tuner, a flashlight, a snowblower attachment (I just made that up to see if you are paying attention), Pandora Radio, e-mail, web browser, more weather, markets (to download or buy apps), You-Tube, TV.com, local TV guide, to-do lists, more weather, an alarm clock, Google maps, GPS, blue-tooth, green-tooth, and the private number for the tooth fairy. I'm sure there are many more absolutely essential apps that I am forgetting. Oh, and it's a phone, too. And a mediocre camera. And a video camera. And, I can get weather on it... and it knows where I am so it gives me the local weather as well as my "favorite" places. I can talk into it to find a specific restaurant and it pops up on the map with the directions. And, I can get weather info on it.

As far as cost, I believe AT&T charges $30 extra per month for the unlimited data plan for the iPhone, same as Verizon charges for the Droid. It's kinda like the "price-fixing" that the oil companies don't do to raise our fuel prices. The two biggies (AT&T and Verizon) seem to have pretty similar price structures. You can tether a Droid. If you tell Verizon about it, they will charge you extra each month for as long as you and your heirs live. Or, you can buy a piece of software from PDAnet once and start tethering. I give no legal advice on this aspect, since we don't use the tethering. Instead, we use a Mifi card and have been very pleased with that, too.

Having said that, Joan doesn't like using my Droid... "It feels like talking into a brick." I also gave her one of my iPods (when I updated to the iPod Video) that she doesn't use. She has a cell phone that makes and receives calls. As an extra feature, you can use it as a paper-weight. Can you imagine - a phone that can't be used as an electronic compass? I mean, really, what a dinosaur. The phone, not Joan. She's a babe. Joan, not the phone. Doesn't matter, she doesn't like to talk on the phone, anyway, and she only checks her e-mail every 3 or 4 days. And not on her phone. That's so cute.

But, I digress. iPhone vs Droid. Both work. I REALLY like my Mac stuff, but the Droid does... just like the commercial says. I turned off the annoying metal-voice "DROID" . Don't buy it 'cause I like it. Buy it 'cause you can get all kinds of weather info on it. And when your iPhone friends say, "Mine does this and this and this...", you can say, "Mine, too." Plus, it doesn't drop phone calls.

YMMV (your minute-usage may vary).

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Thanks, Jim -- sounds like a winner. I have always been philosophically predisposed to favor open source software (e.g. OS X's UNIX core, Linux, and Android OSes) so am glad that the human factors have been addressed so well with the Droid. That is where Apple traditionally had the upper hand.

We will see where all these phones are when my contract comes up for renewal.

Warren
 
Problems with AT&T and all, we are not really considering switching to the Verizon Droid, when the new iPhones come out in June, we are almost certainly going to switch. I don't want ONE MORE phone where I end up thinking I should have got what I really want, which is an iPhone. Even if it costs me the Verizon penalty...
 
Pat Anderson":2ort8ixb said:
Problems with AT&T and all, we are not really considering switching to the Verizon Droid, when the new iPhones come out in June, we are almost certainly going to switch. I don't want ONE MORE phone where I end up thinking I should have got what I really want, which is an iPhone. Even if it costs me the Verizon penalty...
Click to expand...

Interesting how two people can approach the same problem from different angles. To me, the network is the primary consideration. What I use to get on that network is secondary. Your approach reverses that. Not trying to say one is better than the other. Just that it is interesting.

Warren
 
Not directly related, but peripheral. I have an i phone--partly because I get better reception at my home with A T & T than Verizon which we had for years.

Recently I purchased device called Autonet (pretty much like MiFi I believe)--which uses Verizon as a carrier (outside contractor)--and then any computer, I touch, I pad etc can use this as a wi fi point. This is primarly for use on the boat and RV (car also)--you can also use an external antenna and amplifer for distant line of site reception.
 
I have been playing with this app lately. It works on the ipod, iphone and the ipad. It could use a few added features but not bad for 4.99.

boatlog.sized.jpg
 
Any smartphone can get on the network. To me it is what you can do once you get on the network. Sounds like the Droid might be OK (OK, Jimbo, probably better than just OK), but I KNOW what the iPhone can do, and I am Mac through and through. Plus I have a nephew who is an engineer at F5 Networks and works magic on iPhones (due to terms of service issues I am not going to put it in writing here!).


Doryman":1bpk6si6 said:
Interesting how two people can approach the same problem from different angles. To me, the network is the primary consideration. What I use to get on that network is secondary. Your approach reverses that. Not trying to say one is better than the other. Just that it is interesting.

Warren
Click to expand...
 
Pat Anderson":10nbhdm3 said:
Any smartphone can get on the network. To me it is what you can do once you get on the network. Sounds like the Droid might be OK (OK, Jimbo, probably better than just OK), but I KNOW what the iPhone can do, and I am Mac through and through. Plus I have a nephew who is an engineer at F5 Networks and works magic on iPhones (due to terms of service issues I am not going to put it in writing here!).


Doryman":10nbhdm3 said:
Interesting how two people can approach the same problem from different angles. To me, the network is the primary consideration. What I use to get on that network is secondary. Your approach reverses that. Not trying to say one is better than the other. Just that it is interesting.

Warren
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Hi Pat,

I was just commenting about the Droid because I, too, am a die-hard Mac fan. After using the phone for the past 6 months, I think it is an equivalence sorta thing. If Verizon offered an iPhone, I would certainly put that into my considerations next time I swap phones. Had I not bought the Droid (and just went with a regular ol' phone), I would have likely been one of those who stood in line for an iPad 3G. As is, the Droid does everything I hoped for and a whole bunch of other things I didn't even know I needed. :wink: "Need" is a pretty subjective thing... but I find I open up my laptop a bit less often these days, due to the Droid.

I am pleased to hear that you, Bill, and others get good service from AT&T. That's certainly not the case in our home area. And while most of the major players in "the great phone coverage wars" have battles that they win, the endless poor reviews of AT&T on the phone forums keeps me with Verizon. Frankly, I think a big part of the Droid's success has been the perception of problems with AT&T. I've visited with (online) Droid users who were iPhone users on AT&T, and made the switch for various reasons. To bring this back to boat-related thoughts, it seems to me that it's a lot like picking the right boat for the way you will use it. I know what name I prefer to see on the outside, but it's how it works that makes the difference for me.

I'm not "pushing" the Droid, simply letting folks know that the difference in use between the two phones is less than the TV ads would have you believe.

Best wishes,
Jim (confirmed Mac user since 1984)
 
One more data point:

I was a very happy Verizon customer for years before the iPhone came out and after using a friend's iPhone for a little while I decided I had to switch, even with cancellation fees, etc. I was concerned at first about all the talk I'd heard about AT&T coverage, but happily I've found it to not be a problem for me at all. This is in the San Diego, LA, Vegas kind of area, plus trips to Lake Powell and some other places. I'd guess AT&T has improved a lot, but tales from the past have a hard time dying out.

Lots of smart phones will get you on the internet. Carefully consider the interface and the total user experience (including interfacing/backing up on your computer) before making a choice. And forget about whether one phone or the other is $200 more or less. Look at the total cost over say, a two year period. Phone, calls, data, fees, everything. That's what matters. When you're throwing away a thousand dollars or more year after year, saving $100 up front by not getting the phone you'd prefer may not make sense.

I haven't looked at the latest batch of phones, but in the past nobody got the interface right like Apple. This summer when OS 4 comes out it will be even better.

Your mileage may vary.

-Jeff
 
Pat Anderson":24u06eoq said:
Any smartphone can get on the network.
Click to expand...

That was not my experience. After a month without phone access via T-Mobile in rural Florida two winters ago, I said "never again". I am sure there are places where Verizon does not have coverage, and I am sure there are many places where AT&T does have coverage. But I wanted to maximize my chances of getting on the network, so my decision, for better or for worse, was go to with Verizon.

Another factor was that -- and I don't know if AT&T offers this or not -- I can switch my plan back and forth between National and Global so I can use my phone in Canada.

Finally, I had both a T-Mobile phone and a Verizon aircard. Now I just have the one phone that I can tether my computer to, and it costs less.

I have many friends who are not on Verizon and who are happy, and thus I am happy for them. But for me, Verizon was the right choice. Once I made that decision, I had to pick a phone. The only Verizon phone that allowed tethering was the Blackberry Storm, so that is what I got. Now that they have the Droid, I am going to give it a good look when my contract is up for renewal. If they have the iPhone then I will consider that as well.

I agree with Jeff that one should consider TCO (total cost of ownership), integration with the desktop and the interface.

Warren
 
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