Though Apple would like you to think that the iPhone is a great revolutionary breakthrough, the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t do anything that phones that have been on the market for years can’t do.
Meet one of the most popular, the HTC Tytn/Hermes, branded in the US as the Cingular/AT&T 8525. The GSM phone has a touch screen interface with a full slide out QWERTY keyboard (can apple say that?) The 8525 also has a stylus for input. It supports push email, does video, audio, photos (with its 2MP camera), record video, internet browsing, supports the 3G network for fast data speeds and the add on applications are virtually endless. (Think books, programs, games and customizability.)
The 8525 also has Wifi, Bluetooth, Infrared and USB connections and supports microSD, so your storage space is only limited by the amount of cards you have. Calendar, contacts and task lists are standard on this Windows Mobile 5 phone and users can expect an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 in Q3 of this year.
You can also use the full gamut of instant messengers ranging from Windows Live messenger, AIM & Yahoo!, and also have access to Mobile Office, so you can view Word, Excel & Powerpoint files on your phone (in Windows Mobile 6 you will be able to edit & create new files).
The phone also supports push to talk on the Cingular/AT&T network as well as multimedia, text messages, access to AT&T mobile music & cellular video services for content downloading and can double as a modem for your notebook. The only question left is, what doesn’t this phone do? Take that Apple!
Check out the 8525 @ Cingular
I’m sorry.. I’m just not buying it.. Features are nice, and many features… well.. a lot of nice.. But I wouldn’t trade all the features of the world for usability, and so far I’ve yet to see any version of Windows, where ease of use is even worth mentioning. I haven’t ever really tried Windows Mobile, but I can’t believe MS could ever produce anything half as intuitive as Mac OS X, and guess what.. The iPhone runs OS X..
Take that Microsoft!