This made me think of the principal that more important than the prices you are given is the attitude of the company you do business with. If they show attitude that they intend to make you very satisfied with their product then take that into account as well as the cost of the service, it matters. I believe that O2 do not aim to make you satisfied, they aim to make you slightly less dissatisfied than you would be with another provider. The example above is limited to people who use smart phones and use that smart phone in foreign countries. Here are two others.

O2 used to be the underdog, then meteor, now 3. O2 hit the point where it had the same coverage as vodafone and those who didn’t make a habbit out of throwing money away when it got dirty switched to the cheaper provider. Another reason you would switch is that texts were not included in the vodafone monthly contract, you would pay x amount a month and get y minutes and even if you didn’t use any of your minutes they would still charge you for them and every text. Where as with O2 you would pay a certain amount per month, some would go towards rental and the rest would be credit for calls and texts. This meant you could make calls and texts to whatever number assured in the fact that it wasn’t charging you unless you went over the credit.

Then they changed to the vodafone model only it’s calls/texts rather than just calls, now whenever I ring a 1890 (low cost) number I see the charge on my bill. I could have 169 or my 170 minutes still left on account and yet that 1890 number would still be charged. This is designed to make you spend more money than you intended.

I moved out of home a good while ago but never bothered to move my mobile from out my dad’s account. Recently I decided it was time to do so and was told that I’d have to restart the contract in order to do so. So I’m 8 months through my contract with o2 and in order to transfer it over to my name I have to start the whole contract again. I told them forget it and instead I pay my dad who pays for the bill. Not ideal, but better than an extra 8 months of lock in.

As a sub point, o2 are in Britain and in Germany, if you decide you want to move to either of those countries, ignore the fact that the networks are owned by the same company, they will not allow you to switch over while on contract.

After this experience I would be very tempted to buy a pay as you go phone. It may be dearer on a per call basis and the phone itself may be more expensive but you don’t spend 120 euro on a pay as you go phone without noticing and while your phone is locked into the network, you aren’t locked into a contract.

Finally, right now, every phone provider in Ireland attempts lock you in to their service, it won’t last forever, people crave convenience and within a few years someone will provide them that. While it does it will continue to be a very expensive essential service and we can only rely on the EU to step in on our behalf, because the Irish people aren’t prepared to make a stand on this issue and I don’t think anyone knows how to make them. It just seems too small but it’s something everyone has to deal with it.

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I’m going to list the bad points I have with it to get some not mac fan boy cred, and then get into what I like about it. The main theme for all my problems seems to be “I don’t have enough control over this device to feel like I own it, I feel like I’m renting it. These are all things that apple could easily just flip and switch and make work. I don’t mention the camera here because its not a problem for me.
Then I’m going to list all the things that now that I’ve bought it make me happy that I followed that gut instinct telling me I wanted this piece of tech.

Problems I’ve found with the iPhone

• Can’t use it as a bluetooth modem
  It has bluetooth but I can’t sync my contacts and calendar (on my mac) with it like I can with a nokia, also I can’t use it as a bluetooth modem, so no 3g anywhere for me. Its not a big deal that it doesn’t have this, there’s just no reason for it not to and that annoys me.
• Writing your own applications requires an 80 dollar license
  Apple have a store from which they sell applications for the iPhone, the iPhone will only install apps downloaded from the app store, if you want to write your own apps you have to pay 80 euro, you can then give your app to a limited number of people or distribute it on their store once their engineers have done extensive testing to see that it doesn’t enable anything on the phone it shouldn’t or that it doesn’t break anything. You can also sell apps, apple take 30%. Nice way to make some cash.
• Can’t access my files directly
  This has always been an issue for ipods but the iPhone has taken it to a new level, you can no longer use it as a usb hard drive. If I want to get my ereader to read a file I have to tell it what website to download it from.
• o2
  You go on a more expensive o2 plan when you choose the iPhone and the minimum contract is 18 months. You do get the extra 1gig transfer but the lowest price plan is 45 euro which is all a bit much when you consider that the phone will only work with that provider. Also not that you will really care because using 1 gig transfer using a phone is difficult enough but Ireland is the only country where the iPhone is available and doesn’t have an unlimited data plan. Its still better value for money than vodafone and better coverage and service than meteor or 3 so I’m not too miffed, I’m sure I’ll be switching to a new phone in 18 months anyway.

Things I like about the iPhone

• The Multi-Touch Screen
  It is the first thing you notice, it is a complement to every other feature of the phone, its what makes the phone easy to use, powerful and something I spend a ridiculous amount of time using. No other phone on the market has one to that standard.
• Google Maps
  My sense of direction isn’t great and even when I know where I’m going, how am I meant to know that there is a quicker way if I just head down that road that I was sure was a cul-de-sac. I used it yesterday to figure out when the bus was getting close to newbridge so I could ask the driver (private bus) to let me off early. I then used it to figure out how long it would take me to walk to my sisters from where I was dropped off, and finally I rang my brother in law to ask him to pick me up telling him which road I was on off which exit. When I was apartment hunting I could tell it the number of the house I wanted to go to and it points at the right part of the road. It can also tell you where you are, its not as good as satellite but if you move about 20 feet you get the right place, not great for car travel, perfect for on foot.
• App Store
  I know this was in my dislikes too, but there is something really nice about being able to think, “What should my iPhone be able to do” and end up 5 minutes later staring at a virus free app that does what it says on the tin. Most paid apps cost no more than 3 euro. They go up to 20 but I’ve only found one rather specialist piece of software that did. One of the most useful apps for me was the eReader, I don’t like carrying books around and if you switch it so that its white text on a black background it doesn’t hurt your eyes. I also like windows remote desktop, snowboarding (uses the tilt), chess, backgammon, speed test, facebook, skype etc. all of which made excellent use of the touch screen.
• iPod and YouTube
  The iPod is a background application, you can have that playing on your earphones or loudspeaker while you play chess or check your email. It fades out when someone calls you and you can use your headphones (any normal set of headphones plugs in) to hear the caller and the mic as per normal to talk to them. YouTube streams well enough over 3g. Its not as powerful as the full YouTube application over a normal web browser but it does the job when you’re bored.
• Email
  This was a pretty big deal for me, I have multiple email accounts, I want to be able to get my email from anywhere, just like text messages. Its how work contacts me so its important.
• Web Browsing
  Was able to view the Irish rail website for timetables, touch screen makes this really doable without the need for the webmaster to create a separate mobile site I can easily navigate through the majority of sites with ease. The only issues are with rollover menus and flash as far as I can see.

I think the more I use it I’ll find items I wish to add to both sections, but for now, its one of the most useful, most used and best value for money tech I own.

However we’re all different, this is why I bought it, if you are considering buying one I’d recommend you have a look at the n95, Sony Ericsson and the new palm iPhone killer. The n95 is the one I’d be looking at if the idea of a touch screen doesn’t interest you, its not as nice in terms of interface, I mean I wouldn’t use it to anywhere near the same extent if I had one, imagine trying to read a book on a tiny screen :S but it has none of the iPhone downsides I listed.

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