New poll: Which smartphone do you want?

by Volker Weber

Now that Apple has taken the wraps off the iPhone, it looks like everybody wants one. But is that true?

Palm OS has quite a following, and Palm recently released a new Treo 680 for the faithful. Symbian OS commands the largest market share in Europe, with Nokia and SonyEricsson as the main supporters. Then there is Microsoft with Windows Mobile, for instance on the Treo 750 that was just released in the US. Last but not least, the BlackBerry is a viable business tool.

Which one is it for you? Or do you prefer a dumb phone? Unsurprisingly, the reality distortion field worked quite well and almost 50% want the yet unproven iPhone:

pollsmartphone

Comments

The iPhone sure seems impressive - let's see when it really gets here (if they can really make it in 07 I'm impressed)and how high the price tag will be...

But then again, it's amazing enough to buy even under somewhat adverse conditions.

Btw, some small observations/questions:

Since they have an exclusive contract with singular in the US, which to me seems to mean they plan to SIM-lock it quite well - are they going to have an exclusive partner in Germany(other European countries) as well? And who will that be? Vodafone, because they compete in a lot of markets?

Does anybody know if it can be set to vibrate? I miss this on my Nokia N90 - they claim the electronics are too delicate to add vibrating, will this be the same for the iPhone?

At last a tongue in cheek question (you have to watch the keynote to get it):
Are apple products so expensive, because for them
199$(iPod) + 299$ (smart phone) = 499$ ?
If they charge 1$ more just for adding 2 price tags, no wonder they seem to be doing so well. ;)

Anyway, the iPhone does seem like a nice phone for anybody somewhat interested in either smartphones or a better video iPod. Kudos Apple!

Helmut Naughton, 2007-01-10

I know - I just got a Pearl, and I like it a lot. But the iPhone is amazing. Unless of course it doesn't hold up over time. I'm concerned about the screen, mostly. I'm not one of those people who dials my phone without looking at it (that's what the bluetooth integration in the car is for - voice activated dialing), so the lack of keys doesn't bother me. The feature set is remarkable.

Rob McDonagh, 2007-01-10

Having just watched the keynote; I want an iPhone. If it came to parting with cash, i'd probably have to look at it a lot closer and a blackberry could pip it.

What I would definitely splash out on though, is an 80gb iPod with the iPhone screen and UI.

Kerr Rainey, 2007-01-10

I spent a lot of time complaining about "smart" phones. They're all too much of this and not enough of that, and too expensive for what you get. I've said "all I want is a phone!" more times in the last couple years.

I want an iPhone. I want one a lot. The voice mail interface is fantastic. I wouldn't use the Yahoo mail...I would like to hope that they'll do it with .Mac mail. I have the normal concerns about Apple 1.0 hardware but by the time I decide that I'm OK with spending $600 on a phone we'll see how well those screens hold up.

Scott Gentzen, 2007-01-10

well, Volker, as you asked, which phone I WANT, not which I have, it´s the iPhone: I´m thick enough myself, I need at least my phone to be smart. I do already own the Nokia 9300 (thanks to a revew here) but it misses the "i" in it´s name, unfortunately, and a highly underestimated phone is on the way to me (QTek 8500) with Mobile 5.0 in an incredibly sleek design, so the iPhone is on the wish-list.

As to the Blackberry: It´s a pest. I hate it, when people pull it out while conversing with me and oogling it´s contents at the same time I am trying to talk complex matters with them. Neither do I want to be bothered all the time with email. I owned some Palms in their time. Nothing there to convince me today.

Still, my old problem remains unsolved: How to syncronize Lotus Notes with phone AND iCal without the multiplication effect of calendar entries when using the phone as link between both.

Armin Roth, 2007-01-10

thinking again about the 600 $ price tag, I assume, that it will be more like 1,000$ w/o the Cingular contract, or am I wrong here?

Armin Roth, 2007-01-10

Hhm...

did you purposly omit the Linux phones in the survey?
The Open Moko (also here) and the Trolltech Greenphone.

:-) stw

Stephan H. Wissel, 2007-01-10

Volker, I guess this poll will be biased as hell since it is very shortly after the iPhone announcement. Currently 52% of voters want a phone about which they know very little. But knowing that, one can of course interpret the results and they are still somewhat interesting. Do you have an insights on the inner structure of the groups, e.g. country or region specific preferences?

Ragnar Schierholz, 2007-01-10

The iPhone looks very interesting - and if the calendar and contacts are good and good synchable with different applications, then i will probably get one. If not, i'll stick with my Hagenuk S200 (PalmOS based smartphone).

Dirk Steins, 2007-01-10

@Ragnar : perhaps Volker wants to re-poll at a later date to see if people have changed their idea ?

I also voted for the iPhone, but honestly, I will probably only buy it when it's been declared a success by the early adopters, and most probably once it has become a full ipod instead of a ipod nano : having a decently sized hard disk in there like the current ipod (20 or 40 gig would already be nice). How many films are you going to fit on even 8GB ? Plus your music plus your fotos ? I think that 4 or 8GB will be filled up very quickly.

Still, when I think that I started playing in 1983 or so with a zx spectrum that had a massive 16 Kilobytes, the progress since then has been incredible !!!!

Alex Boschmans, 2007-01-10

Not the iphone - at least not at the moment as I do not have a mac nor do I go with Cingular. ;)

But I am hoping it will inspire more producers to make phones without keyboard - most of them are tiny anyhow and unusable, I can deal with a stylus fine.

But I do want all - meaning gps, wlan and umts. And decent synchro with my applications. I cannot see the iphone doing this and it is quite expensive. My next phone will be something different - perhaps a Nokia - and then in 2-3 years perhaps a iphone 2 or 3. ;)

Nicole Simon, 2007-01-10

iPhone without UMTS? I´m not sure...

Karsten Fusenig, 2007-01-10

It's too early to say about the iPhone. Remember the first gen. iPods? They're recognisably iPods, but look how the underlying technology has evolved since those early days.

The iPhone's form factor and capacity points to flash as its method of storage, hence the 4 or 8 gig limitations. Flash memory is getting bigger, better and cheaper, so things will change there over time.

The screen is an entirely unknown quantity at this stage, but I do like Jon Hicks' take on this:

The only drawback with the iPhone

The lack of UMTS is something to consider for many, sure, but not everyone (e.g. it doesn't bother me at all, I would make far more use of the on-board Wi-Fi).

What I think iPhone brings to the table is the entirely different UI for the phone -- this may work, it may not -- and the fact that the phone aspect of the device focusses on just that: being a phone. I like that approach :o)

Ben Poole, 2007-01-10

Hopefully Apple is allready in contact with some developers who will make an enterprise synchronisation between iPhone and Domino/Exchange (...) happen soon... Without that the phone is very nice but not "smart" enough for me.

Peter Meuser, 2007-01-10

I assume it will be inherited with some disappointments at least for the early adopters same as iPods cause some technical and some economical frustration But just the "i" will be reason enough to buy it. I wanna have it.

Jörg Allmann, 2007-01-10

@ Armin - I think in the stream of the Stevenote (now available on Apple.com ) that the phones will be sold in Apple & Cingular stores. So that might actually be the price. We'll know for sure this summer.

Richard van Geilswyk, 2007-01-10

With the intagrated camera, the iPhone is NOT a business phone, at least in the engineering sector.

marc egart, 2007-01-10

I definitely want an iPhone. Reasons:

a) it saves me from regularly buying a new iPod, mobile phone and Palm
b) finally I have a device that syncs all my data
c) I wanna use it to impress the chicks

However, I guess it's also time to invest in stocks on iPhone protection covers. I don't care about my iPod getting scratched but with the iPhone that's a whole different story.

Philipp Sury, 2007-01-10

"Designers, designers, designers"..

The thing that is remarkable that after how many versions, money and years of development by ALL the other phone vendors put together - in about an hour Apple made them all look dated and standing still.

The iPod family now covers a wide price spectrum - I would expect you will see something similar in the next few years for the iPhone.

My only major disappointment is it being tied to a specific carrier - as the carrier in Canada has some of the most appalling customer service on the planet. Giving them exclusive (monopoly) access allows that to continue.. go figure.

Of course Apple still have to execute..but their track record lately has been pretty good.

Ok Volker, maybe my beloved Thinkpad will eventually get retired for a Mac laptop next round...

Stephen hood, 2007-01-10

Stephen, in confirmation of your post it became very apparent to me last night that Apple has the product palette Microsoft has been saying for years it wants to have.

Philipp Sury, 2007-01-10


Link to Gizmodo - they had a chance to play with the iPhone...first impressions.

Stephen hood, 2007-01-10

Regarding the poll: not to be pedantic but Jobs never said that the iPhone runs "Mac OS X". It runs "OS X". That may sound like a small point but "OS X" is a more fluid definition. I've seen some comments elsewhere where people think that that the iPhone will somehow be able to run Mac applications. Not too likely for a lot of reasons: different processor, different UI, different memory footprint, etc. I think that's one reason why they don't say "Mac OS X".

Bob Congdon, 2007-01-10

Point taken. Steve actually did not talk a lot about the Mac.

Volker Weber, 2007-01-11

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