RIP T-Mobile

So, At&t is going to buy T-Mobile(assuming the government lets them).

It seems like a no-brainer that this is terrible news for T-Mobile customers.. the things we stick with T-mobile for are nonexistant in an At&t world(low prices, unlimited data, good customer service, and unmolested Android devices).

Rather than write a huge thing here,I’m just going to link to another post that nailed my sentiments pretty well.

In AT&T & T-Mobile Merger, Everybody Loses

With T-Mobile gone, I suppose I will take my business to one of the little guys.. Virgin Mobile, Cricket, or MetroPCS. Luckily I live in a major market so this shouldn’t be an issue for me(except that I won’t have access to cutting edge phones).

I feel bad for people in rural areas who will end up having to choose between At&t’s anti-consumer policies and Verizon’s high prices.

Waiting for the Verizon iPhone? Don’t bother.

Last night, it became evident that there will be a Verizon iPhone coming sometime next year. This lead to to excitement all over the internet and major media cheering loudly as if something important was about to happen.

Ok,.. you got me. The release of the Verizon iPhone IS important, in a business sense. It will generate millions in profit for Verizon, and possibly hurt At&t as people flock away from their network and it’s reputation of unreliability. But that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

It’s apparent to me that there are potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of people waiting with bated breathe for this phone, and I want to urge you to stop.

No, I’m not saying the iPhone is a bad phone. In fact it’s a pretty great phone. It was downright amazing or, as Steve Jobs might say, “magical”, when it released back in 2007. Back then, there was nothing like it. An ultra simple, streamlined device that could make calls, surf a full HTML internet, play media and some other neat things. It wasn’t long after that that 3rd party apps arrived, and the phone market has never been the same.

But this isn’t 2007. There is choice now. It’s no longer the iPhone or nothing. I figure there are three main types of people actively waiting for this iPhone:

• You have an iPhone on At&t and want to switch to Verizon.
• You’ve never had a smart phone because you’ve been waiting for the Verizon iPhone
• You have an Android/webOS/Windows phone, but never owned an iPhone.

For the first type of consumer, I get that. You have the iPhone, you like the iPhone, you just want better service. Keep on waiting.

It’s the other two types of people I am trying to warn with this blog post. I assume if you haven’t jumped into smartphones yet, or if you have an Android phone and can’t wait to drop it for an iPhone, that you believe that the iPhone has some mythical properties that will change your life. It won’t. Not any more than an Android phone at least.

See, there was a time, around 2008 or so, when Android phones were a bit behind the iPhone in terms of hardware, and VERY behind in terms of applications. That has completely changed.

For one, there are many Android phones available with matching or superior hardware to the iPhone4. Most of the “high end” Android phones are sporting a 1ghz processor, which matches that of the iPhone4. This includes the HTC Evo, Samsung Galaxy S variants, Nexus One, HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X, and probably a few others that I missed. If the front facing camera is a big deal, Android has that too. You can pick up either the HTC Evo or Samsung Epic on Sprint for those, or wait a bit for the HTC myTouch from T-Mobile, which will also feature Wifi-Calling. With so many choices, there is an Android phone out there that will fit exactly what you want.

And then there’s the apps. Ah yes.. “apps”, the keyword of the late 2000′s. This too, is an area where Android has caught up to Apple in a hurry. You may not realize this, but Android now has somewhere around 80,000 applications in the Android Market. Yes, there are still about 3x as many in the Apple App Store, but what you probably don’t realize is that the majority of all these apps are variations of each other, and the best of the best tend to come from established companies who release on both platforms anyway. Android also has a category of apps that iPhone does not: replacements for “stock” functions of the phone.

If you don’t like the home screen on your Android phone, for example, download a different one on the market. If you don’t like the included text messaging, replace it! If your phone uses a soft keyboard, you even to get to choose from dozens of those, all with different methods of making typing easier than carefully pecking at small letter chicklets on the screen(my personal favorite is Swype). Heck, you can even download alternate Android app stores if you prefer them over the normal Android market. Apple specifically forbids these kind of applications from making their way to the iPhone, so you’re stuck with Apple’s basic grid UI and all the preloaded applications that the phone comes with. The customization that this affords to Android is a feature often overlooked when considering a phone. If you want to preview the Android app store to discover what’s available before you jump in, you can use sites like Androlib.com or Cyrket.com to browse applications in your web browser.

Basically all I’m trying to point out is that there’s no great reason to specifically wait for an iPhone. You can jump into Android today, start enjoying smart phone life, and sacrifice NOTHING while doing it.

You’ll even be able to hold your phone any way you choose.