Now that the hype surrounding the iPhone has finally subsided and droves of people are running back to AT&T retail centers to return their iGadgets, I want to tell you why I don’t need an iPhone. I’m not an iPhone “hater” or a person trying to rain on Apple’s parade. I applaud their iPhone marketing campaign. As the Director of Business Development for a virtual assistance firm my day is filled with email writing, telephone conversations, making appointments, file sharing, file transferring, and instant messaging to name a few. I wanted a phone that allowed me to continue to work in this capacity while I was away from my desk. Yes there are Blackberrys and other SmartPhones out there, but they were pretty limited in what they could do. So like any business person would do, I researched what products were out there that allowed me to have an office away from the office. My research, along with a catchy commercial, brought me to the Helio Ocean phone. The Ocean phone has many features that the iPhone doesn’t and its almost half the price! For all you techies out there, the Ocean operates on a nation wide 3G network as opposed to AT&T’s EDGE network. What this translates into for all you non-techies is that the 3G network is the fastest you can get with a cellphone. There is a learning curve with using the iPhone’s touch pad keyboard. With the Ocean, you have two keyboards at your disposal (QWERTY and numeric). There are no instant messaging capabilities with the iPhone. With the Ocean, you can use AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live. I don’t even need a separate GPS navigation system in my vehicle. The Ocean has that covered. If I want to take photos, I can do so with the camera with zoom and flash. The iPhone camera has neither. The Ocean phone allows me to email clients and potential clients as well as communicate with my staff via Yahoo instant messenger. When I need to get directions to meet a client, I can use the Google maps feature and the Ocean will navigate me there.
So unless you have $600 to blow, don’t sleep on Helio’s Ocean phone.
July 11, 2007 at 10:14 pm
After reading an article about the production cost (under $250), I can’t imagine paying 2 1/2 times the cost for a phone that is still in the ‘new’ stage. Many people, mainly small business owners, were out of luck (and business) during the launch weekend. No one could get activation. According to the reports, Apple was not prepared to handle the volume of new subscribers. When the customer called to activate the phone, the service would deactivate the old phone. And, due to the delay activation on the new phone, many of the subscribers were without phone and email services for at least 3 days.
I have always waited at least a year before purchasing new products and software. Especially those that can handicap my business if it’s not properly working.
Oh the woes of new technology.
L.