The Writer’s Coin

I love gadgets, so I’ve been keeping a close eye on the new iPhone that Apple finally released last week. When the first one came out, I thought it was pretty cool, but not that many people bought it right away and it took some time until I started seeing them “in the wild.” Which made it easier to resist the temptation.

But the iPhone is now a phenomenon and it’s very hard to fight the urge to buy one, even if it does wind up costing more than the old one. Being a practical kind of guy, I went through the pros and cons of getting this phone in an effort NOT to buy it:

The Good Stuff

• The Phone has GPS: This opens the door to a host of cool applications based on location-sensitive information, not to mention never getting lost again as long as your phone is on you.
• Applications: Apple is letting third-party developers write programs for the iPhone, so that means anyone with a great idea could potentially write a program for the phone.
• 3G: You can now surf the net on your phone at decent speeds, a big change from last year’s version.
• Cheaper: It’ll cost you a lot less up front, although over the long term it’s more money. The lower price, however, does make it psychologically easier to swallow. I’ll never spend $399 on a phone — but $199…maybe.
• Sexy: There are other phones that do the exact same things the iPhone does (and more), but they don’t look this good. I try to stay above this kind of stuff, but it’s tough.

The Negatrons

• It’s trendy: Everyone has one now. It’s like the RAZR back in the day — it was too ubiquitous for me.
• Expensive: I would have to pay for the phone, an early-termination fee with T-Mobile, and it would double my monthly payment (ouch). That’s a lot of money for someone trying to cut corners to save for a new place.
• I don’t need it: I’m doing just fine with my Motorola PEBL right now, thank you very much.
• I’ll feel bad: I will, I know it. If I ever bought it, I know I would feel incredible guilty for a long, long time. I don’t know that it’s worth it.

In the End

This kind of reminds me of how I was feeling before I bought a Wii — nervous about spending money on something I didn’t need but really wanted. Right now I’m doing a pretty good job of holding my iPhone lust in check. For one, I’m not an AT&T customer, which means I have to do a lot more work if I want to use this phone. That helps. Also, T-Mobile may be the first carrier to carry a Google Android-supported phone. That might even cooler than the iPhone. It’s supposedly coming out at the end of this year and the phone, the HTC Dream, looks pretty cool. I doubt that I’ll buy that phone either, but it makes it easier to wait and see what that whole Android concept looks like.

I think I’ll get past my lust for an iPhone for now, but if Apple does anything crazy like another price drop or something in a few months…you never know.

Carnival News

My post on Shitty First Drafts made it into the Just Write carnival over at the Incurable Disease of Writing. Go over there and check out more writing related posts.

Tags: AT&T, frugality, HTC Dream, iphone, Nintendo, T-Mobile, wii