I'm a gadget hound. And for full disclosure, I'm an Apple fanboy. Some of my work 'requires' that I be a fanboy...but I honestly like Apple gear, DRM and Apple tax be dammed.
During the past 10 years, I've had various phones including the Treo 600, Nokia candy bar, Blackberry 8700c, Blackberry Curve 8310, iPhone (1st gen), and now iPhone 3g.
I've had both iPhones from launch and last year lost my iPhone 1.0. Went back to my 8310 until the iPhone 3G came out. I have to admit, going back to the Blackberry made me realize how much better RIM is at text and email, as stated before. iPhone simply isn't close. If you want an all around entertainment device with a full breadth of apps, true iPod capability, video player, etc the iPhone can't be beat. That being said, you have to live w/ the crappy 3G coverage of ATT (for now). I live in Silicon Valley and work in Santa Clara, CA. Those of us w/ iPhones struggle to get a consistent 3G signal. Google and you'll find that's true in SF, NYC and almost every metro area. ATT's 3G coverage is horrible, Verizon is WAY better. BUT, I NEVER had coverage problems when using my Blackberries. RIMs simply have better antennas and hence better coverage. Now it's not only the iPhone's 3G radio that's to blame. I just came back from 3 weeks in the Philippines and their 3G coverage makes the US look pathetic. I could get 5 bars in places where there wasn't even a hot shower for hundreds of miles. So much for capitalism and free choice in America...
iPhones are also not for everyone. My wife HATES my iPhone. She can't type on it and for her, the GUI is not intuitive. She inherited my 8310, which she LOVES, and I'll probably upgrade her to the Blackberry Bold. IMHO, the Bold (right now) is probably the best smartphone.
If you want an iPhone, wait about a month. There may be an announcement at Apple's WWWDC next week but I doubt it. My guess (and it's an unbsubstantiated guess) is that Jobs will present it at as a new product upon his return to work. Count on next week to provide the official release of iPhone 3.0 SDK which should have some slick features.
I used to LOVE Palm. I had several Palm Pilots and even helped them work on a few, up through the Palm Lifedrive. I've seen vids of the Pre and know that there's some old Apple guys working on it. It's a GREAT phone, has a lot of the things that the iPhone is missing. It goes on sale this Sat and if it was on ATT, I'd consider dropping my iPhone for it. But I don't want to switch to Sprint.
Google made a valiant effort with the G1. And the latest Cupcake update makes it better. However, I think it's got a ways to go before it's a great phone.
