Your eyes are not playing tricks on you; you’re actually looking at a dinosaur in the mobile phone market. I asked my buddy why he has not purchased a new phone in the last 5 years and he said, “Because they have not build one as good as this one yet.” Let’s think about this for a minute: all versions of the iPhone, Android, Palm, and Windows Mobile didn’t get him to upgrade off the original T-Mobile Dash. Even the new versions of the Dash he dismissed as crap compared to the original. Now he said he is ready to upgrade to a new phone that is coming out in a couple months.
I personally blame Microsoft for making my buddy Brian wait 5 years between mobile device upgrades, but he has his eye on any new Windows Phone 7 device. I want to pause for a moment because part of me wants to call him a WinMo fanboy, but he has been using the same phone for 5 yrs, so in his own words let’s call that cheap. Despite purchasing and returning several phones he has not found anything he has liked as much as the Dash.
Windows Phone 7 is a huge change from Microsoft on the mobile front. Microsoft, unlike RIM, did not play it safe when it came to changes in their device ecosystem. I have an iPhone 4 sitting in front of me and there isn’t anything exciting about the device that makes me want to even look at the screen anymore. I don’t know if this is because I have been spoiled by the Android thing; not using it as my primary phone; maybe owning all the previous iPhones; or perhaps just a general lack of excitement compared to other platforms. Whatever it is, I don’t feel any zing, even though it is brand new and shiny.
I hope for Brian that the wait for a better Windows Phone (Mobile) device is worth the 5 year he has spent waiting. I for one will be happy not to see this device the next time we are in the same room. To think that I have had the iPhone 2g, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Storm, Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, BlackBerry Bold 9650, and an iPhone 4 in the same time-span he as been waiting makes me somewhat queasy. In fact, I am more than surprised that a mobile device could even last that long. But, in retrospect, he probably hasn’t dropped it in the water once. Ouch!