The Verizon iPhone

I am not what you would call a cellphone junkie. I never cared to have the latest and greatest model. It is not because I don’t like gadgets because I most certainly do. If I had deeper pockets or stopped feeding my children my home would be outfitted with a lot more electronic gear than it is today. It is kind of funny to me that my son doesn’t realize that his father is much more of a gear head than I appear to be. The television in our living room is a 26″ beast that has been servicing our needs for about 13 years now. Every now and then I think about replacing it, but there are always things that get in the way, like tuition.

The cellphone, er smartphone is a different story. I switched from a basic phone to the Palm Treo five years ago and never looked back. The Treo and I enjoyed a solid two year relationship that was marred by a few hiccups, such as its proclivity for dying every six months. Eventually I tired of its antics and moved over to a BlackBerry, the worldphone.  It was a great change and I was very happy. It was Jack, the BB and Verizon a stalwart trio if ever there was one. The iPhone was introduced somewhere around this time and many people I knew made the move.

I did not. I had a bad experience with AT&T and their network a while back and saw no reason to switch. I watched as iPhone mania took over and admit that there were times that I wanted one. I listen to music constantly and wished that my iPod could be my phone too, but still I didn’t switch. RIM made my life easier by working out a relationship with Apple. So when I upgraded my BB to the then new Curve I was able to move 500+ songs to my phone.  And life was good again. But slowly I found myself growing weary of some shortcomings with the BB.

It was exacerbated by the happiness that many people found with their Driod phones. I was very impressed with the Droid X that @blindreviews showed me. That sucker is pretty cool and for a while I thought about picking one up. The main thing that kept me from switching is the price. Verizon simply charged far more than I wanted to pay for it.  One of these days I have to share my thoughts on how we are gouged by the cellphone providers, but that is a story for a different day. Anyhoo, the Droid X and I merely shared some flirtatious glances across a crowded room and I thought that would be it. I would wait a bit longer for the price to drop and then pick one up.

Except, I find myself intrigued with the idea of the iPhone. Now that it has made it over to Verizon I see myself eyeing that sucker and thinking about its sweet siren song. I am not a Mac person. Aside from the iPods there are no Apple products here, but I admit that there is something attractive about it. So I was intrigued to read what David Pogue thinks about the Verizon iPhone.

And to answer everyone’s question, the Verizon iPhone is nearly the same asAT&T’s iPhone 4 — but it doesn’t drop calls. For several million Americans, that makes it the holy grail.

That certainly catches my eye as does this:

In general, the Verizon and AT&T iPhones are identical. Same sleek, thin, satisfying, plastic-free body — all glass and metal. Same gorgeous, high-resolution screen — 960 by 640 pixels. Same battery life — you’ll need a recharge every night. Same camera on the back, which can take 5-megapixel stills or excellent hi-def video — the flash doubles as a video light. Same low-resolution camera on the front, suitable for Wi-Fi videochats, using Apple’s FaceTime software for iPhone or Mac.

Even the prices are about the same. The 16-gigabyte phone costs $200 with two-year contract. The monthly service costs, for example, $70 for unlimited voice calls, plus $20 for 5,000 text messages, plus $30 a month for unlimited Internet use. (Verizon says that it will soon eliminate that unlimited plan, just as AT&T recently did. Instead, you’ll pay something like $25 a month for 2 gigabytes of Internet data. Good luck figuring out how much that is.)

The single new feature in Verizon’s iPhone is Personal Hotspot, where the iPhone becomes a Wi-Fi base station. Up to five laptops, iPod Touches or other gadgets can get online, using the phone as a glorified Internet antenna.

Although, I have to concede that the price is still far above what I want to pay. The monthly service charges are significant, even though for me they are business related I never forget that I still have make the payment each month. Nor have I forgotten Apple’s proclivity for introducing new phones three days after the old one comes out. So I think for the time being I may sit and wait a bit longer. There really isn’t  a rush and I still haven’t decided about the touchscreen. I have big hands and there is something nice about having actual keys to press.

Decisions, decisions.