I’ve been asked how I decided on an Android phone and how I finally settled on the Atrix. For me, it was a pretty short selection process.
I need my business email, I need access to my client’s exchange email, I use GPS a LOT, my focus is not playing ‘games’ or ‘social media’ but getting work done. I want a reasonably priced plan. Lots of minutes and because I live on the phone for my job, no extra long distance charges are a must. This helps me budget my phone expense and typically I spend between landline and cell phone about 2500 minutes a month on the phone.
Over the past year, I have been increasingly upset by the lackings of my RIM and even more disappointed at the upcoming potential replacements. I have had 3 RIM’s and I noticed that RIM just was not keeping up with the Joneses. It really is pretty much the exact same phone, with the exact same features that I have had for 6 years. I have read a number of recent reviews stating that RIM has consistently underpowered their devices. I think the big hit to RIM was when one of my clients loaded the new OS6 and it broke most of the features on his phone. When he called for support he was told “Sir, your phone is almost a year old”. While my RIM device did some things great in my opinion, RIM just did not keep pace with the market. I’d almost go as far as saying that it has become out of touch with the consumer and unfortunately too big to react quickly. I decided in September that my next device would not be a RIM product.
I have had a Windows CE based phones in the past, and unfortunately when we heard the Windows Phone 7 presentation a few months back, the number of “it’s not ready but it will be coming soon” items – especially features that for me were critical need – brought up old bad memories. I’m sure that by 2012, it will be amazing, but I needed a solution now.
I don’t know why, but I absolutely hate the iPhone. I have listened to friends and colleagues. They either LOVE the iPhone or they HATE the iPhone. There seems to be no middle ground. I think what may be my stumbling block is the idea that I bought something and now the vendor tells me what I can and cannot do and locks me into what they think is best for me. Yea, I could jailbreak it, but that is at best a nuisance, and at worst an affront to my technical savvy. When the new iPhone 4 came out, a colleague dropped the phone and the entire casing shattered. It seems that they have made the front and back from glass to get that special iPhone 4 look and that to me was a recipe for disaster. There have been some sacrifices to durability in favour of a really cool look. Conversely, another person I have spoken to loves the iPhone because he does not have to do anything, it just works out of the box.
I started looking at Android devices in January, and I liked what I saw. My brother had just got the new Samsung Galaxy S and it was pretty nice. I was thinking I might have found my new phone here. I spent the next couple months reading reviews and invested in an Android tablet to see what the platform could do. I liked what I saw, but was still not completely sold as I wanted better graphics, better power, more memory – the typical IT techie stuff. The Dual Core Motorola Atrix has a responsive platform, amazing graphics and with 16 GB onboard and another 32 GB available by micro SD, it seemed to be a good option.
From here, I hit the review boards to learn everything I could about alternatives, but kept coming back to the Atrix. For my needs, the device looked like it would meet both wants and needs. Now, almost 2 months in, it continues to amaze me. Since the last newsletter, Android surpassed Apple on “Free” apps in its app store, and is rapidly gaining ground on the paid apps.
It also leverages the technology in ways that are reminiscent of something from science fiction. It is, in my opinion, a “bleeding edge” device. I know that alone will turn many people off as there are always issues with being at the front of the curve. For me, right now anyway, it is as much about the making it do what I want as the serving my needs.
Will I still feel the same in 2 years? Only time will tell how good a choice this has really been. See the first post on this topic here.
About the Silicon Halton Blogger
Joel has 33 years experience consulting on data integration, B2B, B2C, EDI, ERP, and specialized software solutions for small business in Canada, USA, and throughout the Caribbean. He has experience with retail supply chain, franchiser software, metered billing and homegrown software solutions. Joel Baines, PMP. joel.baines@cogeco.ca