Thats right, today is the day…June 29th. There are already people waiting in line to get them at many Apple stores, and no doubt they will all sell out within a couple of hours. I however, will not be getting an iPhone. Here are a few simple reasons why the iPhone is not the phone for me. Ill start with some background.

Currently, my cell phone is a Samsung D807. It is a small slider phone with a relatively large screen and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is a good cell phone and I enjoy alot of its capabilities such as:

  • EDGE network capability (although its slow, it is faster than GPRS)
  • Bluetooth connectivity (I use it for handsfree in the car)
  • Camera
  • MicroSD expansion

However, more importantly, my phone has its drawbacks, which would prevent me from recommending it to others. The EDGE network is slow, even with the excellent Opera Mini browser installed. It has proprietary connectors, which means I would need an adapter to play music through my regular headphones. Most importantly, although it uses the Java platform, the actual OS of the device is proprietary. That means it only uses Java, and can run no native apps. This means I cant replace the interface or add a new launcher, or even move categories on the phones menus around.
This is the absolute biggest problem with the iPhone. Its running FauxSX. They claim its OSX, but it cant run OSX apps. Now, I believe that at some point either hackers will figure out a way to run native apps on the device, or Apple will open it up to developers, but for now, if you get an iPhone, you are stuck with what you got. Here are my top 5 reasons why I am not getting an iPhone:

  1. Lack of 3rd party application support
  2. No 3G network, just EDGE (this is supposed to be a revolutionary device, EDGE doesnt cut it)
  3. Only 8GB of space in the premium version? (that wouldnt hold my entire music collection (About 9GB), not to mention my collection is all in WMA)
  4. $599, you have to be kidding me. What are the chances it will even last me two years (no gadgets of this type last me longer than 2 years).
  5. No stereo BT headphone support (was apple just being lazy or stupid here, it must be one of those two options)

There you have it, those are my reasons. If you want a truly good converged device, you are going to have to look further. If you are like me, and you want to be able to customize your devices, the iPhone is not for you. I will likely either be getting a Treo or a WM based device for my next phone. I am not sure which yet, but I can tell you one thing. It will not be an iPhone. What do you look for in a phone, and is anyone considering the iPhone?

PS: For reason number 4 above, you must understand that even if the iPhone does not fall apart after two years, there are other drawbacks to keeping it. By then, we will likely be seeing the second or third iteration of the iPhone, which will have either 3 or 4G network capability. Even if your iPhone works in two years, you will probably want to get a new phone.