I’m sad that I’ll be missing the iPhone revolution
June 12, 2008Right before Christmas 2007, I decided I would finally get a cell phone. And as long as I was getting a cell phone for myself, I’d get a friends-and-family plan where I could pay for a phone for my Mom. That way wherever she is she’ll have a phone, especially when she’s out running errands.
Now Mom is not a technophile. For example she’s possibly the last person in North America who still pays for her groceries using a check, no debit card for her. So the biggest criteria was to get her something simple. And I decided I’d better get myself the exact same phone as I bought her. So that if she had problems or questions I’d be able to walk her through since I would have the same device.
At the time Sprint had a really good deal, especially with the group discount that my employer at the time had negotiated. For $50/month I get service on two lines plus the two identical phones cost just $49 each. Hers is silver mine is red, but they are otherwise the same basic Samsung phone.
But this week Apple announced their new iPhone, and the new capbilities plus the new pricing are really tempting. However I’m just six or seven months into this 2-year contract with Sprint. Plus even if I could switch, I would still need to keep Mom’s current phone and phone number.
Basically it just seems too complicated and too costly. The earliest I could even consider switching is right around Christmas 2009, some 18 months in the future. By then there will probably be at least one more generation of the iPhone, and Google will have slipped out the Android-based phones.
I’m so sad I won’t be able to join the iPhone gang though. They’ve really got a winner from what I’ve seen. Oh well, on the bright side I’m saving money.