I Don't Have an iPhone, Here's How I Survive

Shashi Bellamkonda January 3, 2010 Tweet

Apple iPhone 3GS

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Shashi Bellamkonda. He blogs at: blog.networksolutions.com and shashi.name. You can follow him on Twitter at: @shashib.

Yeah! I know you are probably shocked, but the truth is that just out of coincidence and/or lethargy, I don’t use any Apple products (That’s right, not even an iPod). I love what I have heard about Apple products and would definitely recommend them to others, in fact my daughter has a Video iPod and my wife a iTouch. I currenlty have an unlocked Nokia N95 that I use with an unlimited calling plan on T-Mobile for $49/month. Add $30 for a data plan that includes hotspot access. I love the freedom of being able to choose which cell phone provider I want to use and to use the same phone when I travel out of the US and T-mobile is a very customer friendly company. I was able to stream from my phone live long before this was possible on an iPhone.

According to Wikipedia there are 33.75 million iPhones sold to date (Q4 2009). AT&T the sole seller of the iPhone in the US reportedly has 82.5 million subscribers. As of April 2009, Nielsen estimates that there are 6.4 million active iPhone users in the U.S. Apple is not in the top 5 mobile phone manufacturers in the World ( not saying that it won’t be one day) See data in the IDC report that tracks mobile phone manfacturers . In the top 5 are – Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. So if you do not have a iPhone too you are not alone. If you were curious about the top countries by number of mobile phones here are the rankings : No 1 : China 720M No 2 : India 543 M No3: US 271M.

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors 2009

As my friend Ramon Ray, Technology Evangelist & Editor of Small Biz Technology says:

Technology is a TOOL. Use it to GROW your business. Your need for technology should grow with your needs and not hanker after the coolest device that is trendy unless it solves a business or personal need.

What’s good about the iPhone : The power of the applications in the iPhone App Store. As my friend Barg Upender of Mobomo an iPnone app development firm always tells me one day the iPhone will be a business tool as apps get more spcific to your business need. For your specific business i suspect you may need a customized app unless you were doing routine tasks like email, contact management etc. I will leave it to the hordes of iPhone affectionaidos including my friends Jimmy Gardner and Frank Gruber to comment on this post and persuade you that there are indeed great apps for your business in the app store and maybe the app developers themselves will comment here.

What’s not good about the iPhone: Every time I speak to my friends who have a iPhone we seem ti have dropped call issues but then it might be just my luck. The phone is locked and if you move companies you are out of luck and have to get a new phone.

Looking at my own technology milestones here are some examples of why I upgraded:

First cellphone : When my kid got locked in the car and my home phone was busy I got a cellphone.

Going broadband : When it took me 3 hours to book a flight on a dial-up network.

Mobile Data Plan: take pictures and video and stream instantly (maybe a bit of luxury or ahead of its time but is a blogger necessity)

First paid phone app: Gravity for Twitter on my Nokia N95 so I can tweet using multiple accounts @shashib @netsolcares @growsmartbiz

I will wait and watch the Google Nexus phone and sure hope that it comes unlocked and provider independent. I loved the HTC made T-Mobile Dash which I used for a few years. My advice think about a change of phone only if there is a business need or when your contract comes up for renewal not because the next best thing is in the market.