Conflicted over the iPhone
If you’re a Canadian business person who travels at all and has a Smart phone, you probably have a monthly mobile phone bill that equals half a mortgage payment. Not surprising, as Canada has the highest wireless phone and data rates in the Western world. I found http://www.thomaspurves.com/2007/04/09/canada-worse-than-3rd-world-countries-when-it-comes-to-mobile-data-access/” title="someone who had done the math">someone who had done the math, though he got the name of the Canadian agency that regulates cellular telephone companies. It’s the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association. (On their site, the association claims to advocate for the industry to the CRTC, which means that Canadians aren’t likely going to get any sweet deals on wireless soon, if they have their way.)
Which brings me to my own sweet deal. I’ve been doing the annual spring conference tour, either presenting or podcasting, and as soon as I crossed the border, I turned off my phone. (This despite having a Talk North America plan, which still dings me $800/month phone bills some months. Yes, Telus, but but but ... whatever. I care about my user experience, not your business justifications.) My friend, Scott, from Indianapolis, immediately handed me his extra US mobile phone for my use during my 10-day trip. Bliss. Better yet, the phone turned out to be an iPhone. As Scott tossed me the phone, he said I wouldn’t need any instructions other than the basics. Well, I needed a few, but very few, and they were for bonus functions, such as pinching or expanding thumb and forefinger on the screen to contract or enlarge the size of a Web page.
I loved being able to use Twitter from anywhere, to connect to whatever wireless network was handy, to having virtually no extra clicks to move between applications or to confirm or close applications, no typing lag time, and best of all - unlimited voice and data plan! No mobile-use guilt while in the US. What a difference it makes when doing business.
Now I’m regretting getting the HTC P4000. My initial excitement at getting a new Smart phone quickly dissipated when I couldn’t get the phone to sync with my computer (it seemed to be an incompatibility between Vista and Windows Mobility Centre but a system restore of my computer had the function working - for a day before it stopped working again). For a while, I carried my old phone around, just for quick access to phone numbers, but without voice activation, making calls was just too painful, and though I had my calendar appointments on the old phone, I never heard the reminders because the phone was buried in my bag. So I basically use the HTC P4000 as a “dumb” phone for incoming calls, at least until someone, somewhere can get it working. Maybe by then, Telus will get the iPhone (I’m stuck with almost a 3-year contract with them still), and I’ll be able to toss this piece of hardward that requires multiple extra clicks for every function I want to use.
Even then, I’m not hopeful that I can get it set up at all. When I called the HTC call center, the rep I had kept asking me to click on menu commands that didn’t exist in Windows Mobility Centre, and eventually he confessed that they didn’t have any Vista machines so he could follow along. (Well, they did have one in their crash lab, but he didn’t want to run back and forth to the lab.) The first Telus rep was hopeless, and the second one couldn’t help me, either, though sounded more together. I’ve been wanting to mention to them that I have to reboot the phone a lot, but fear that I’ll get an inane answer. The only folks who seemed to really be helpful was the good folks at Apex - but no matter what they did, they couldn’t crack the code, either.
So iPhone holders, keep your delightful electronic gadgets away from me. I may just drool into the keys, and then where would you be?