Oh, How Far We’ve Come: A Look at the Hotshots of Today’s Mobile Phone Industry.

A few years ago, I transformed myself from a Nokia-wielding, constant faceplate-changing, hundred text-messages-sent-a-day preteen to the Crackberry addict you see before you today. My Blackberry 7105t once signified the beginning of Research in Motion’s realization that a growing number of non-Forbes 500 consumers would gladly buy a blackberry- if it would only ever fit into the back pocket of their stonewashed Levi 501’s. Thus the slim downed 71xx series announced it and it’s new suretype qwerty input to the world- but not nearly as loud enough. It still didn’t flaunt itself towards the media hungry (like myself): it supported no mp3’s, no camera, no streaming video… despite the direct push email, it was like being dropped back into the 17th century. (Mind you, I owned the Nokia 3650 previous to this, adorned with the newly debuted Series 60 platform, realplayer and all… it was a beautiful thing. Till this day, I don’t blame Nokia for being the last company to shell out their first camera phone- they saved the best for last.)

Anywho, that was a long, long time ago. My Blackberry just died in fact, so I’m surveying the market for the latest and greatest. It comes at great timing also, since my T-mobile contract is up, and as a customer that’s stayed with them since their beginning, I get a discounted upgrade. (That is, for 18 dollars.) Of course, now I’m noticing how much I truly dislike T-mobile. Currently, while every other company is raping us with their iPhones and overly-priced-high-fashion-branded cellphones, t-mobile is keeping it nice and conservative with their sad Motorola flips and self-branded line of sub par windows mobile 6 devices. HTC should have their ass kicked, they didn’t even have enough smarts to put in something larger than a 200 mhz processor. YOU CANNOT RUN WINDOWS MOBILE 6 PROFESSIONAL ON A TI OMAP 850 200 Mhz PROCESSOR! Well, technically you can, but, YOU CANNOT RUN IT WELL! Of course, I’m focusing in on the Wing here, which might just be the slowest piece of crap I’ve ever had the pleasure of laying my hands upon. Aside from the fact that T-mobile has a horrible taste in phone selection and naming, they’ve kept me around simply because they’ve never done me wrong. As in, when all the other companies began running those dropped call ads, t-mobile customers around the nation were wondering what the hell a “dropped call” was. (Actually, I almost wish we did experience dropped calls, then I’d have another excuse towards why I hung up on my mother while she ranted about the uncleanliness of my room…)

Therefore, Since I’m not impressed with the current Blackberries, nor t-mobile’s smart phones, (and of course I am not succumbing to the connotation of technological immatureness that come along with owning a sidekick) I’ve entered the dark side of the unlocked phones of the European GSM market. After weeks of combing through my favorite mobile websites, such as Engadget Mobile and Phone Arena, I was pretty sure I was going to put all my money on the HTC Tytn II (AT&T Tilt), which seemed to be the everything phone, our savior to the iPhone. Well, apparently not. There seems to be trouble brewing between tilt owners and HTC, because of some missing video drivers. Even with a 400 mhz processor, I’ve heard that these drivers are the only thing keeping this phone from becoming the best WinMo 6 phone to date. This has been the only thing keeping me from buying the tilt, or any HTC phones at that, so the wait continues.

Thus I’m left to cross my fingers for the next few days, as the Mobile World Congress convenes in Barcelona until Thursday. There have been some great announcements made, such as Sony Ericsson’s decision to begin developing WinMo 6 phones (check out the gorgeous Xperia X1, slated to kick the N96’s ass in the third quarter, perhaps?), The attack of Google’s Android and Linux mobile platforms, and the biggest news for t-mobile customers: MICROSOFT’S TOTAL CONSUMPTION OF DANGER! YES! (who the hell cared about the yahoo merger anyway?) This may be just what t-mobile has been waiting for- imagine that, a touchscreen sidekick slide overwhelmed with WinMo 6, or even better…7! IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR AMERICA!

Right now, the t-mobile execs are kicking their feet back, for come third quarter, the iPhone is going to be drowning to it’s death along with AT&T in the cash money whirlpool that is t-mobile’s long awaited success.

What was that? Did I hear that correctly? There’s been 14.3 Million WinMo 6 Phones sold in the last 6 months?

I’ll soon be selling “w.t.f. is an iPhone?” shirts over on eBay for 10 dollars a piece, 15 for two.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the biggest story of the day? That blackberry has had yet another revelation? They have seen the error of their ways, and someone has been able to leak RIM’s patents for a touchscreen blackberry slider in both suretype and full qwerty designs.

God Bless Barcelona!

~ by lonelygenius102 on February 12, 2008.