Until this week it was all so simple. I was going to wait until my mobile phone contract ends in October, and get a Google Nexus S.
The choice just got farmore complicated.
Blackberry Torch Lets discount this one straight away. The Blackberry OS (even in it’s 6th iteration) is utter garbage. Nobody is writing apps for the Blackberry, and the hardware is woefully underpowered.
iPhone 4 Soon to be replaced by the iPhone 5. A good option if you’re happy being tied into the Apple ecosystem, drinking the Cupertino cool-aid. I’ve been there, I’ve done it for a couple of years. The only thing I miss is the apps. Also, iPhone 5 is already being talked about - and is somewhat inevitable to fit in with the Apple industrial design reboot that happens every 18 months or so, and makes all their old toys look soyesterday
Google Nexus S Released late last year - reference hardware from Samsung, and OS from Google. Perhaps the best all-round mobile operating system and ecosystem available. Only fear is the rapid churn of Android OS versions at the moment, and Samsung’s woeful record around updating existing handset models.
HP Pre 3 Announced yesterday. HP finally take the wraps off the “secret” that everybody in the technology industry knew; they have the best mobile operating system (WebOS), acquired from the ashes of Palm - who effectively killed themselves making it. The only thing missing is the apps ecosystem.
Nokia / Windows Phone 7 Announced this morning. Following the arrival of a former Microsoft executive at the top of Nokia, the biggest phone manufacturer in the world announces the ditching of everything they have been working on, and plans to release Microsoft Phone 7 handsets. If they hadn’t done this, Microsoft would have been out of the mobile race entirely I’m wondering how much they paid Nokia.
The pragmatist in me is shouting “Android” - because I use many of the Google services - and therefore the Google Nexus S (or whichever the most sensible handset is, come October). The engineer in me is rooting for HP and WebOS - purely because it’s by farthe best mobile operating system (I’m not going to bore you with why).
I guess it’s good that I’m not changing handsets until October. It will give the landscape time to settle a little.
p.s. has anybody seen the HP Veer yet? I confidently predict it will become the most popular phone carried by women inside a year.