Blackbomber's on the right thread here.
I have to admit, it's only been the past couple years that I've really started paying real close attention to wireless handsets again after going years on the Nokia candybar featurephone train, and the past six months that I've really been able to realize how ridiculous the Android and iOS platform truly are for most people.
Although I advocated using a cheap Android smartphone as the basis for a communications device in the guide that Norvilion link-checked there, I'm starting to come back around after truly realizing what matters most in an effective communications tool. Android and iOS both are distractions... powerful, overpriced, electricity hungry distractions. For all the flexibility you get in all the software solutions you might be able to run, they're not particularly cohesive solutions nor are they the most effective, can be downright buggy at times, and battery life is disappointing at best. They might be useful in a tablet form-factor, but not as a communicator. As the CDMA era of Platinumtel winds down and I'm looking at the jump back to GSM and BYOD given their switch to the T-Mobile network, I've been freer to pursue a phone that truly fits my needs more than I have in years instead of being partly at the mercy of the prepaid carrier I was with (I did, after all, go from Net10 pre-BYOD days to CDMA Platinumtel after leaving AT&T). The great assortment of incredibly powerful new and used phones available on the market now for so cheap isn't hurting my situation either. I missed certain things about my old Blackberry, but I didn't miss the dependence upon BIS amongst other things.
The secret and key to keeping your wireless phone service affordable is to ensure of all the functions the phone is built to handle, it functions best as a communications tool in the mediums you need. These are what cell phones are supposed to be designed for, and this is why you're paying a wireless carrier for service: mobile
communications. Savings are had with access to WiFi connections for data, ease of text input, SIP/VoIP support, good reception, a good speakerphone, email push, and long battery life. The fewer moving parts, the better, too, from a reliability standpoint. Anyone who needs a phone as a flexible communications tool probably recognizes this list of features as solid. Anything a device does above and beyond this is just gravy and likely counts as a distraction.
For the past few weeks, I've been pouring heavily over phone manufacturers, phone operating systems, and the features there-in and keep circling back around to the same conclusions. Any modern Java MIDP 2.1 feature phone operating system (or even Symbian S40) combined with a WiFi chipset is fine for
personal communications usage with such solid offerings as the Samsung Ch@t line, the LG C series, some Alcatel OT handsets, and of course Nokia's Asha line of phones. They're so affordable, you can frequently pick many of these handsets up new and carrier unlocked for under $100. You can't do SIP/VoIP with the things and you can't really do always-on push notice text replacement apps like Kik, but it's a small trade-off when most people seem to prefer text-based communications anyway. Also, an SMS nudge if your friend's offline and they fire up the app if they're available fixes that last issue. Even still, these shortcoming are being worked on and is in the early stages of being solved thanks to
Nimbuzz Ping and the
NIST (amongst others), which is bringing smartphone always-on communication and SIP support to the feature phone crowd. Of course, some people would find those caveats unacceptable, and that's fine... there's no one-size solution for everybody, but it highlights the importance of starting from the bottom when looking at equipment and moving
up to find the features we need/want, instead of just trying to start at the top and work our way down. You might be surprised by what a phone that's now dismissed as a cheap beater handset for teenagers and poor people can do these days, especially when you discover that there's a reasonably decent Java app for
Google Voice texting and callback.
These points, however useful, do not address the more demanding needs of a business use phone where timely communications for professional contact in all forms is necessary, though. Let's be honest here, as much as I'm a proponent of SMS replacements like Kik to keep personal communications costs down, you don't really use these things much in business, because nobody's on the same platform and people only like the native bundled texting solution which doesn't go cross-platform. As such, true business runs on voice, email and SMS. This keeps bringing me back to the same group of devices since Blackberry is off the table given the need for not having all your internet access dependent upon servers you have to pay extra to utilize. Those devices? The humble Nokia business phone running Symbian S60. You get push email support, WiFi, native integrated SIP/VoIP support, great keyboards, awesome battery life, and good speakerphones. Phones like the e71 are legendary amongst business users, and can be picked up refurbished for reasonably great prices still rocking your face off with their ability to just
work. Heck, Symbian s60 even has a
WiFi hotspot app if you need it!
This isn't to say that Android and iOS can't be effective platforms for a phone as a
tool, but for all the added functionality, they frequently become a distraction instead... a costly distraction. When you're starting a business, being connected in a timely manner to the people you're doing business with, and that phone acting as a further related tool to
aid with business in the field (if those tools can even be met effectively with the same device - frequently, they can't) is
all that your husband should be looking for in a phone. Buying an iPhone will likely result in thousands of dollars of expenditures wasted and weeks of productivity lost to Angry Birds by the time you get out of contract, more than anything else. Now granted, there's nothing stopping you from buying an unlocked iPhone outright and going with a cheaper provider, but... is he getting this phone to build business or to play with?
He is starting a business and thinks it would be beneficial to have one.
If the business model depends on an iPhone then he needs a new business model.
Maybe his goal should be to afford an iPhone from the profits instead of writing one off as an expense.
QFMFT.
(I should post this.)
