- I’m still happy with my Linux-based Motorola A780 that I picked up in Hong Kong two years ago. Why?
- It is quad-band GSM, just like the iPhone. I can use it most anywhere in the world (except for countries like South Korea and Japan that are 100% CDMA).
- It has never been “locked” by a North American mobile phone network. I have three SIM cards (Vodafone AU, pre-Cingular ATT Wireless, Virgin Mobile) that work equally well, whether I am in Australia, North America or Europe
- I can shoot video or take pictures and store them on removable memory cards
- I can send email and surf the web on the phone, using the touch-screen keyboard
- It’s not 3G, but the EDGE network is good enough for a two year old phone
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The iPhone is locked to
CingATT Wireless with no way of switching SIM credentials to a new native network. Travellers will be in perpetual roam mode and be forced to pay the subsequent roaming charges - There is no J2ME, Java or any other third party language/runtime environment installed or available for the iPhone — Apple suggests developers use Safari as their entry point into the phone. My application ecosystem isn’t ready for an enforced web-delivered SaaS model yet.
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The phone is limited to
CingATT Wireless’ EDGE network. I’ve used this network for the last two years, it is slow. I can’t imagine being locked into a $600 device, dependent upon EDGE for the next two years.
I may buy one once they add international credential configuration and they open up some access to the Mac OS running the phone itself — for developers and users. Third party IM, Slingbox, and VOIP/Skype clients would be nice also.
On the other hand, I may just wait to see what Motorola has up their Linux-based sleeves in the upcoming months.