On Tuesday, Google is expected to publicly announce their Nexus One phone running Android. This is addition to a smattering of other Android OS phones out there, like the Droid, with many many more to come if you believe the techie sites.
Considering how much I love Google Voice (just wish there was a way to use it with two different Google Voice numbers and the same cell phone), and that all my email, contacts and calendar entries run through Google servers, you would think I'd be one of the first to jump on Android. Not so fast. For starters, every carrier has or will have an Android phone available except AT&T. No, I'm not an AT&T fangirl. They suck. But so does Verizon and Sprint and every other wireless carrier. For every good thing anyone has to say about any carrier, there are at least 50 horror stories. Even Verizon. When all is said and done, I have a family plan on AT&T of 5 lines and I don't want to think about how much it would cost to switch to any other carrier. With rollover, we're never worried about running out of minutes (about 7,000 rollover minutes available on our account last I checked) and we have unlimited data and SMS on the phones that use it. I've had my issues with AT&T over the years, but I've always been able to get them worked out eventually. The hell you know. And second, it's the apps. My iPhone is more than just a phone and web-enabled device. I literally live on it. I manage my diet (recently went back to Weight Watchers), pay bills and manage my finances, handle all my logins and passwords, read books, measure my knitting and so much more. At this point, I can't imagine rebuilding all that functionality on another platform. And unless I'm missing something, none of these phones are a bargain even in a "if it's Google it's cheaper or free" world. Rumor has it that the Nexus One would be over $500 unlocked. Ouch. Using a subsidized plan makes the phone much cheaper, but locks you into a single user $80/month plan for 500 minutes. Ouch again. I'm paying much less than that for my iPhone because it's sharing features with the other phones on our family plan. The iPhone isn't perfect, but it's getting better. Calls aren't dropping nearly as much as they used to. And if I forget to plug my phone in at night it's still quite usable the next morning. It took me over a year to jump on the iPhone bandwagon from my beloved Blackberry. Let's see if Android ever draws me in, but for now I'm staying put.-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Judi Sohn 
4 responses to “Why I’m not interested in an Android phone. Yet.”
I’ve never had big problems with AT&T, but I live in Erie, so it’s not like the network is swamped or anything.And despite not loading too many apps to start, I’ve slowly kept adding more and more to the iPhone. With the 3GS I now use my iPhone probably 10x as frequently as when I first got it (though, admittedly, that was when there were no apps).
I am new to the iPhone (got mine in September). I inherited my 3G when my husband upgraded to 3GS. In our area, AT&T works great. I live in a pretty rural part of the Bay Area and I have 3G at my house. I love my apps and am simply not even tempted to switch.
I’m not a smart phone user yet, though I certainly covet one. I can’t justify the cost of a data plan yet to myself or my employer, because I’m rarely away from a computer. But I think if/when Salesforce gets an Android client, I’ll probably take the plunge. That’s obviously one of the apps that you would lose, and at this point couldn’t replace, in making an iPhone to Android switch. Some of Apple & AT&T’s business practices related to the iPhone are icky enough that I just can’t see myself buying that device.
I do think the app market will catch up on Android, and given how tight Salesforce and Google are there should be an app very soon. I want middle ground between Apple’s ridiculously tight and arbitrary policies on their app store and Google’s wild west. Look at trying to find a theme or iGoogle plug-in. Thousands and thousands of things that do the same thing and you can’t really tell what’s junk or not. Versus the way they handle Gmail Labs where it’s a tight selection. I don’t know which is the right answer.