While we've seen a variety of
surveys pitting the iPhone against its most notable rivals, a recent study conducted by the NPD Group breaks down the numbers behind who left what phone (and what carrier) to acquire an iPhone. Not surprisingly, iPhone early adopters were "ten times more likely than other new phone buyers to have previously owned a Treo and three times more likely to have owned a T-Mobile branded phone, such as the popular Sidekick model." When it came to carriers, Alltel and T-Mobile were said to have lost the most customers to AT&T, as consumers who "switched carriers to buy an iPhone were three times more likely to switch from Alltel or T-Mobile than from other carriers." Notably, the lack of "corporate email support" was pinpointed as the main reason that many BlackBerry users didn't make the leap, but it did praise the iPhone for helping to "bridge the gap between consumer-focused feature phones and productivity-focused smartphones."
posted Oct 15th 2007 8:34PM
Lies.
Hardly. I'm sure many of those Treo users came to be disappointed.
I left my Nokia E50 (series 60 symbian) for the iPhone. While its amazing and is, quite frankly, awesome - I have been extremely disappointed by the fact that it is NOT a smartphone in any way - and cannot be made into one.
It is really just an advanced "dumb" (regular) phone.
Definitely does not bridge the gap between dumphones and smartphones. Let's not make hasty statements, okay Engadget? ;-)
I'm going to take that one step further and leave myself open to abuse from the Apple fanboys, and say that if you left a Treo for the iPhone, you barely scratched the surface of the Treo's potential. The iPhone may be very impressive hardware-wise but when you factor in software, even a hacked iPhone can't touch a Treo. The iPhone had the potential to be a Treo killer but fell far short due to crippleware. That said the iPhone does a good job of filling a different niche, for people who just want their phone/browser and digital media player wrapped together, and nothing else. For this specific use it easily beats a Treo.
That's my opinion, do your worst.
I totally agree with you - ANYONE who says "oh, I love this better than my Treo/WM6 device/" is either lying or never used their phones beyond the capabilities offered by a Motorola V220.
It's one thing to have switched to the iPhone and have been disappointed (as is my case), but entirely another to actually say that as far as actual *functionality* is concerned, that an iPhone beats a true smartphone.
Not true.
In related news, MS piddled itself. Just a little bit.
Mom didn't notice.
Uhm... Windows Mobile wasn't even mentioned - which implies that few WM users jumped to the iPhone. Why would Microsoft be unhappy about that?
[Assuming your post implies MS being unhappy - to be honest, I'm not at all sure what you meant - it reads more like the obligatory MS bashing post in an article which surprisingly has nothing to do with MS at all...]
I left behind my barely operable Moto Q :)
Interesting, I bought a new WM6 T-Mobile Wing with a two year contract right about the time the iPhone was released.
Bucking the trends I guess...
Just traded a Treo 700 for a Moto Q9m. Huge step up, mostly thanks to WM6. It's not *quite* as pretty as the iPhone, but the Q9m design is still very nice -- right up there with the BB Pearl, IMO. And it's a true 3G SmartPhone with "next gen" capabilities -- e.g., I can find contacts *on my corp directory*, and search email stored on my email server at work, see email with tables and html laid out nicely, see who accepted my meeting requests, etc. It's even pretty good for media if you spring for a high capacity MicroSD card. It's not good enough at media to be my ONLY media player, but it's easily the best phone I've ever owned. If you need a phone for work and play, it's probably the best one available in the US market.
paul34 said it very well. I don't personally see the iPhone as a true smartphone like my BlackBerry Pearl is, nor the Cingular 2125 I owned before it.
The iPhone certainly does make a lot of phone features easier and intuitive, but until Apple finds better ways to improve the "authoring" capabilities of the iPhone I don't see it really taking a dent out of corporate smartphone sales.
The iPhone is great for viewing content, but for creating it...not the best.
"The iPhone is great for viewing content, but for creating it...not the best."
You know - I've never heard it summed up this well. You got it spot on.
This might be upsetting if not for one fact: pretty much *every* phone is a horrible content creation device. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than use 99.999% of camera phones for photography. Video is not any better. In general, media creation devices built into cellphones are like airbags: you hope you never need to use them, and when you do it's a surprisingly bad experience.
I'd say kudos to Apple for not delivering what's guaranteed to be craptastic media with their device.
/not a fanboi, don't own iphone
I think he meant creating content as in typing documents and such, rather than taking pictures and recording videos.
perfect.. great for viewing I agree. I'd add not great for receiving a call, in noisy streets incoming voice is too low, mostly though incoming is not received and voicemail takes hours if not a day. Lousy real life battery life. Screen if it gets greasy starts to impede touch control. all that polishing reminds me of my mum.
Like a lot of Apple products it's a beautiful toy but only when you don't have to keep one. Glad I returned mine.
I went from treo 600 to 650 to 680 to iPhone and I couldn't be happier.
I'm another former Treo (600) user. Granted, my unit was about three years old, had been dropped a fair number of times, the battery was on its last legs - but I'm quite happy with the iPhone. I'm still waiting on some improvements in the email client (mass deletion, etc) but all told, it's a superior device.
I bought my sidekick for the brilliant keyboard, and while the iphone is very nice in many respects, no.
this poll seems acurate to me because i have a sidekick 3 and i am getting an iphone for my approaching birthday
well, treos, sidekicks, and windows mobile phones are piece of trash anyway
the only good phones are Symbian S60 and iPhones :)
Ha I just picked up an iPhone last week to replace my Helio Ocean. I have had a terrible experience with Helio. I have had to replace the Ocean four times all of which for different issues. The first two times I replaced the phone the company never documented the situation. They kept on insisting that I reset my phone and input all 500 of my contacts over again and that this will solve the problem. Helio also stated on multiple occasions that they would not replace my phone until I reset the phone but I was not about to wait and see if it really would solve the problem and then have to wait anther week to get the replacement (which I had to do the first time). On top of that when I finally did receive my replacement phone/s every single time they transfered my phone number to the new phone they said it would take up to 24 hours. I soon caught on that this was not so at all. All I had to do was call and complain and it was reconnected immediately. Interestingly enough my last installment of the Helio Ocean basically crapped out on me two days before I got the Ocean. I don't think its very appropriate when you have to get your $250 replaced every month. My first thought on the Ocean was that it would have been the best phone I ever owned and I would have still agreed with that statement if not for the terrible manufacturing of the device and customer service.
Apple and AT&T has my business for the next two years.
As an owner of a Helio Ocean, I have to say that it's most of what I would want in a phone and the iPhone is the rest. I'm an iTunes user and would love to have a phone, music player, camera, text messenger and internet browser all in one, along with a decent amount of storage capacity. But, until Apple releases an iPhone with at least 32-64GB of onboard storage, a 3G data transfer, GPS chip and voice activated calling (bluetooth headphones aren't required but would be freakin sweet), I'll stay with my Ocean + 5G 60GB iPod Video + Canon SD400. I have to disagree with this poster as I have never had any problems whatsoever with my Ocean, other than an occasional lock when I would removed the battery and restart it and everything would be fine again. The camera, text messaging and most of the phone functions are excellent. While on vacation in Maui and again in NYC, I used the GPS/Google Maps countless times to find restaurant locations and phone numbers, used Google internet to find a stupid fact and have used the camera and messaging functions to post to my blog. Part of me kind of hopes that Helio folds before my 2-year contract IF and only IF Apple releases iPhone 2.0 with my laundry list of desires, which I think in this day and age, are completely attainable.
I understand the love for the Ocean and I agree it would be nice if iPhone had some of those capabilities. I wish 3rd party apps would be allowed on the phone already so I could at least have aim run off it but I dont see that ever happening. Like I said I would have stayed with Helio/SprintNextel if the phone did not keep malfunctioning on me every month. It was always the same problem too. Either the screen flickering and end up turning an inverted purple permanently or the keyboard would randomly get super sensitive making me type and delete doubles of everything or the internet would brick permanently or the battery status would not show proper charge. I would fully charge the device and sometimes have it die on me after only an hour and a half of talk time..
as for my needs the iphone has all the capability's that I need....just wish they had aim on it.
Lately any report with the word iPhone is news.
FACT: Engadget gets most of its funding from Apple.
FACT: John Hodgemen says the best facts are made up.
Fact: Bears eat beets.
Simple truth... Apple stories bring in the hits.. which brings in more ad revenue. Expect the trend to continue.
FACT: Cats cannot taste sweet flavours.
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica
While it doesn't surprise me that Sidekick users left their carriers, I am a little shocked that Treo users jumped ship too. What that really tells me IMO is that Treo users, never really needed to be Treo users in the first place.
I sold my crusty old sidekick 2 with it's lovely pealing rubber keyboard. (I loved that phone though) Nothing beats the sidekicks for IM. I truly miss the qwerty and hiptop servers.
I was out of contract with T-mobile when the iPhone came out. I had a BlackBerry. Did I switch? No, in fact I renewed my contract with T-Mobile and 3 weeks ago just got a new BlackBerry Curve...and it's already unlocked. Did I pay for the unlock? No, I called T-mobile, requested the phone to be unlocked, and that's it. Why would I want to be stuck with AT&T with a phone that cannot be unlocked to make calls overseas, which cannot send MMS and is overpriced like every other turdtastic equipment Apple sells?
Leaving a Treo and/or a Sidekick for an iPhone does make sense though.
engadget needs to list the full facts
out of 13,000 buyers in a period of 30 days, 200 of them bought iPhone. Not very big number if you ask me.
iPhone is pretty, but hardly can compete with others on functionality. thats why I got new palm centro, rather than stick with ATT and get iPhone.
a bit more than 1.5% market share from ONE model is quite a huge market share, if you ask me.
although i'm extremely intrigued how it compares to the market shares of the N95...
hehe, 1.5% shipment in 30 days is quite different from 1.5% market share.
sorry, i should've been more specific, "30 days market share" :p
but i digress, it depends on which 30 days it did its survey on. a 13,000 sample on a 30 day period is actually quite a good large number that can represent the whole population for an entire year with probably +/- 5% error (so could be 190 to 210 people, meaning 1.46% to 1.61% market share).
nonethless, it IS still a representation (and CAN be a meaningful one at that) of the US market share
@LordFarkward - google helped: N95 has sold 1,5 million in first 3 months.
My friend is leaving Verizon after many years but not for the iPhone. She's getting the AT&T Tilt from for $99 after rebates on letstalk.com
You get your rebates and then switch to mediamax 200 for $20/mo unlimited data. (don't call, just do it on att.com)
it may be bulkier but worth it.
qwerty + gps + 3g + real 3rd party apps + flashing original firmware (kaiser) UI = win
Hey dude I just order my phone from lets talk and it going to cost me 99 dollars, I can't believe it, hey listen but I have sign up for 2years data, so you saying I could remove the data and then add media max 200? but what about the contract?
I don't know if you'll get this in your email inbox (or if it'll go to me) but cash the rebates and after you get the money back, go to AT&T and log in to your account and change the PDA Unl to MediaMax 200. That's what I did. If it doesn't let you, on the website, change it to say you have a handset phone as a device (like razr v3) and that'll work
Um...i don't have an iPhone..but i played with one and yeah its nice that the texting isn't as bad as it seems...but i don't really think that too many people that text by touch left for the iPhone...
just my two cents...correct me if I'm wrong
the longer i use it, the better i find the texting. i sure text a hell of a lot faster on the iPhone that i ever did on the N73 numpad or the P990i QWERTY keyboard.
I use a single index finger for typing very fast, and very intuitively, and I don't care much about missed / wrong keys b/c the iPhone software auto-correct almost always takes care of it.
add to that other niceties:
- sms are displayed as conversations, so you don't lose the context.
- editing your message easy - just move the cursor with your finger, a loupe appears and you can precisely position the cursor. that is a hell of a lot faster than either pulling out a stylus or going there with the arrow keys.
I haven't used a Blackberry but I dare say that text editing on the iPhone is up there with the best. I have seen people type blind and fast on num pads but while I can't type blind i am willing to bet I can do it faster on the iPhone keyboard.
other things are not so good - carrier lock, no 3rd party apps w/o hacking, email...
authored a report based on 200 iphone users. that is less than 0.02% of at least 1 million iphone user. NPD, we stands for credible and scentific market reseach!!
The survey talks about 200 iPhones out of 13000 consumers in the last 30 days. I don't understand why you want to talk about the total number of iphone users here. That's totally irrelevant to what this survey is about.
I left a Blackberry Pearl for the iPhone. I'd give the Pearl's texting a 10. I give the iPhone's an 8.5. Treo's and Q's are 9's. Any T9 phone is a 2.
Every other phone does pictures, songs, maps, youtube, and browser a 5/10 and the iPhone does it a 10.
Granted I could absolutely flyyyyy on text's and emails on that BB. But I was willing to give it up for the total media device.
I left a Nokia N80 for my Pearl, and I left a Sony Ericsson P910i for the N80. So far, the iPhone is the best overall phone I've had.
Oh, and I unlocked it for free. So I'm paying $65 for the same plan AT&T charges $100+ for. =D win win win situation.
People leaving the Treo for the iPhone? I'm not surprised! The Treo is a POS (piece of well.... you know.), I mean I would of probably done the same if I wasn't stuck with a contract with Verizon.
lol, cancel it.
Haha, I was seriously considering it, but then the iPod Touch came out and I decided to get that (I Jailbreaked it on Saturday and I'm lovin it!). But as soon as my contract expires, I'm out of that door w/ Verizon ASAP! I hate them. They make me feel like a guinea pig in a cage... Ok so maybe that's a really bad analogy lol!
I think its a no brainer, someone who has a regular phone wouldn't switch to an iphone because it is on the technological forefront. The Treo users switched because they are geeks and like to be up with technology. The sidekick owners got the iphone becuase they wanted to be the cool people. Hey look at me now everybody I have an iphone and left my rhinestone sidekick at home.
Since Yahoo Push email seems to be not working for most if not all users, this would seem to be another reason blackberry users would not be inclined to switch to iPhone. I am surprised that Apple does not seem to be addressing the lack of functionality of this hyped feature.
i left my treo 755p
I love my treo 755p, but I'd leave for an iPhone if it would sync with my Outlook E-mail and Calendar as my Treo does.
the iphone does sync outlook email and calendar for windows. I just checked it.
From T-Mobile MDA to iPhone. Finally a real web browser and a real phone.
Doesn't anyone use Good on a Treo for enterprise-grade email? I'm sorry but Good running on a PalmOS Treo crushes a blackberry for corporate email. Without Good, then yeah, the Treo email sucks.
ChatterMail was pretty awesome when it wasn't crashing. The IMAP idle push and Exchange plugin made me wonder why anyone would pay extra for a Blackberry data plan.
My phone progression has been: Sidekick -> Sidekick Color -> Sidekick II -> HTC Wizard -> iPhone. All on T-Mobile. I was afraid I'd miss some stuff about the wizard... so far, the only thing I miss is syncing it via bluetooth, and I can live without that. It's light years better in every respect.
I ditched my Treo 650 for an iPhone. Mainly I miss the todo items, Outlook notes sync, and a freeware Sudoku app. Not having to wait 2 minutes for a reboot because Blazer / Chatter / Phone / AudioGateway / PocketTunes crashed was worth the loss of a couple of gadgets.
A BETTER STUDY WOULD BE the number of iPhone sales vs AT&T iPhone activations ;^). Wonder how close to 1 for 1 it would get? I'm just saying...
I'm a treo owner (700w). As soon as they have a 3G iPhone, I'm switching. Mobile browsing is high on my list of wants/needs. The Treo is a nice device, but the iphone will offer a better browsing experience once it is on a decent data network.
The iPhone may not be a 'smartphone' but was never really promoted as such so instead of continuing to whine, just get over it. I left the Treo 680 and its numerous crashes and sync failures for an iPhone that is easy, dependable, simple and more than makes up for any smartphone.
They're not 'whining' - they're pointing out that other phones in the same price range (especially back when the iPhone was $500 or $600 each) are high end smartphones which offer not only most of the iPhones functionality - but also can do much more and are easier to unlock and allow applications to be developed and installed.
They're also replying to the often commented point that the iPhone contains MacOS X as if this magically makes it into a little Mac and opens the hope that all the missing features will be filled in with commercial apps... except that unless Apple changes directions - Jobs has made it clear that this isn't going to happen, and the last iPhone upgrade kind of proves they're not going to make things easy for iPhone unlockers and applications hackers.
To them, the constant hyping of a small set of the iPhone's features while ignoring the many weaknesses and defects, and then denigrating other very good systems just because they don't work the same way (or denigrating them because they DO work the same way - there really is no way to win the game) is tedious.
If you're ok with all this, then have fun. But for some people, buying a locked phone that has a fixed set of apps that are kind of dumbed down to make them easier isn't really desirable.
The choice is yours. I doubt anyone forced you to buy one. Who are you to decide the features and price? Why is everyone so crabby because they can't make the iPhone into something it isn't? It works fine for me. I had over 30 third party apps on my 680. Result was constant conflicts and crashes. Not worth it. I love my iPhone.
I bought an iPhone and I am loving it.
Wouldn't have given my $399 to Apple if there were no 3rd party hacks to unlock the SIM though. The iPhone is the best phone I ever had, but it would all be worthless to me without the SIm changing feature. I travel a lot and have SIM cards from 3 different countries, that's why.
The 3rd party apps add a lot of functionality that make the iPhone even better. I love to be able to whip it out and use iStumbler to assess the WiFi situation before sitting down somewhere, for example.
Still - I could live without 3rd party apps, but not without SIM-unlock.
I went from a sidekick 3 to the iphone. I couldn't be happier.
I got a NOKIA E61i instead of an iPhone... And i am happy i did :)
I'll make sure not to consider your advise then. I had the previous model to the E61i and I couldn't be happier that piece of crap is long gone. Nokia's UI's are as bad as they get, the construction quality is miserable, and stability is terrible. What's worse is there's no reset button that you need several times a day.
Good luck with your choice.
I left my Blackberry Curve behind. Now 3 months later....I'm back to my Blackberry Curve.
Why? I'm tired of deleting e-mails one at a time. Apple needs to fix this. They also need to add junk to the mail app.
OK, now lets see the stats on how many of those people regretted their decision & ended up switching back.
That's not allowed in the contract Steve makes you sign. You are required to evangelize all Apple products as a condition of purchase.
Good news for all you disgruntled Treo owners! You can send your phones to the Post Office in Glouster, OH and address it to: Bruce Westfall
I can take those annoying little things off your hands. If you could include the memory cards, that would be a great help.
45732 is the zip code.
My 650 needs some company.
(Little joke: What did the angry Apple employee say? "iQuit!")
Nice attempt at a joke. Next time, try testing it out a little before posting it on the interwebs for everyone to see next to your name.
lol @ Aaron.
"iPwnd"?
Event my grandfather told me iPhone is the best cellphone ever made.
It just easy to use and it works!!!
Yes, iPhone will dominate, just wait and see for the iPhone 2.0 :)
Yeah, I too trust my grandparent's advice with all my high-end technology purchases. And they trust my advice about which adult diapers are the most absorbent while being comfortable at the same time.
It works out.
Well, MacinJosh, why shouldn't they trust you with diaper advice. If you've been wearing them for a long time, you would know better than they would. Those Depenz Ultra Absorbent can really suck up a lot liquid, right? They're a little tight around the thighs, but that's good for preventing embarrassing leaks. ;) The iPhone should work at least as well as good diaper.
yeah.. yeah.. yeah.. watch your self leaking!
stop bitching Microsoft biaches!!!
I too just left TMO for ATT, but not for the iPhone. I got the new Tilt.
Not only did I want a phone with all the features of the Tilt, but I was sick of waiting for TMO to get on with their 3G deployment.
I went from a Cingular Treo 650 to a Verizon BB 8830 and I couldn't be happier. This silly report doesn't imply causality and frankly proves that the iPhone's revolutionary features aren't what has sold it. The people that buy Treos and Sidekicks and Blackberrys and iPhones are generally more tech savy and as consumers are seeking out the next gen stuff. Mavens and first adopters are always looking to get the newest. I wanted a new Treo, and wanted to get away from Cingular and back to Verizon. The Treo 700's are a year old and there aren't any CDMA Treo 750's and Palm's new Centro is a step back as far as I'm concerned, so I went with the Blackberry. I certain that the "Oooh and Ahhh" of the iPhone didn't catch the attention of that many Treo owners who weren't already looking for something new.
I personally am a Hater. I believe the iPhone to be all hype. I think it is GSM shit. I think that Apple is destroying the iPod name and line. You update iTunes and all of the sudden there is an iPhone Connection utility or something of the like running in the background of you're machine? The iTunes install is all of the sudden 35MB?
Eff the iPhone.
Everybody is leaving their other devices behind for a sip of iPhone Koolaid. The whisper is that once you taste the iPhone, there's no going back. It's seduction, pure and simple. One glance of that Apple logo and the love affair begins. Your hearts, mind and testicles all belong to Apple. Johnny Appleseed was reborn as Steven Jobs.
A-pull, A-pull, A-pull. Keep in step. March to the beat, my fruit-filled drones.
The iphone is not UMTS but the surfing in internet is more amusant with it.
http://blogdolci.com/2007/10/15/video-del-mio-nuovo-iphone-apple/
yes iPhone for the Revolution!
You guys should realize the headline is completely wrong. The report starts out misleading, and Engadget has managed to further twist its meaning to the point where the headline is flat-out false.
Buyers of iPhones were 10x as likely to be former Treo owners than buyers of regular phones were. What does that mean? I'll give you an example.
Let's say they sell 1 million iPhones, and 50 million total cell phones over 3 months. Of those 1 million iPhone buyers maybe 10% were Treo owners, or 100,000. That would mean that 1% of regular phone buyers were Treo users, or 500,000.
Or, maybe 2% of iPhone buyers were Treo users. That would mean that 20,000 folks abandoned the Treo for the iPhone. Whereas of the 50,000,000 other phone buyers, only 0.2% (100,000) used the Treo.
Did "most" owners leave Treos or Sidekicks behind? Absolutely not. For that to be the case, about 250,000 iPhone buyers would have to be former Treo users (and another 250,000 Sidekick users). That's 25%. Which translates into 50 million x 2.5% of ALL phone buyers abandoning the Treo. That would mean Palm lost over 1.25 million users! In 90 days! I doubt it! It would also imply that the Treo's market share declined by 2.5 percentage points, which would be improbable since they probably have less than 0.5% of the market to begin with.
Listen, if this made any sense to you, you probably already knew it. But suffice it to say that your editorial staff should brush up on their math comprehension skills before trying to craft a 2-bit press release into an eye-catching headline.
It's funny reading all of this, cause this is exactly what I'm doing: selling my Treo 750 for an 8GB iPhone. The earlier comment about the Treo owners must not be "tapping the full potential" is rather accurate... I'm simply not. The more I used my 750 since it got released, the more I'm looking at a phone that I'm just not using to its full advantage even when presented with the options. I use basically four things on my phone: web browser, email, text messages and IM. The browser on the iPhone is easily superior to Mobile IE in my experience, I've heard the IMAP client is pretty good on the iPhone, texting works pretty much the same (conversation style) on both devices, and Trillian has an alpha version of Astra that works on the iPhone.
That keyboard isn't so bad once ya get used to it, my fiance took to it like a fish to water and she can type pretty quickly now. Oh, and the data plan for the iPhone is half the cost of the standard one for the Treo, which is the winning factor for our household. That's almost $25/month saved after taxes.
So, in summary, I'm pretty much the poster child for the kind of people this survey found. Sure, the iPhone isn't for everybody and a lot of people have their reasons for hating it. It's just a good phone for me.
Well I am sure all is not lost for other devices but for now iPhone has really taken off. I think alot of the others devices lack the multimedia experience of the iPhone. I have been using my ipod and iphone for more music and movies at http://www.ipodtunesdownloads.com
This article rings true for me. As soon as the $200 price drop hit, I left my Sidekick 3 and T-Mobile contract in the dust.
Not me. I've gone back to smartphone with keyboard (testing Palm Centro for review at this time), as described in this story:
iRegret: Apple's smartphone isn't so smart
http://joeygadget.com/2007/10/16/on-msnbc-iregret-apples-smartphone-isnt-so-smart-by-joe-hutsko/
I used various models from Blackberry (from the pager model and the 900 series all the way up to the Pearl) for oh...about the last 5 years or so. I was on a sprint 6700 WMD a couple of years ago, when RIM was involved in the lawsuit and I had to see if WM was a viable alternative for my company. I've run Treos, both during and after it was Handspring.
Here's my analysis:
Windows Mobile:
The Windows Mobile phone could do amazing things. It could do obscure, rarely used, and even more rarely NEEDED things amazingly. If I wanted to create a VPN into my network and get a 3rd party command line parser/forwarder tool so I could manage my servers from my phone, I could do it. It was great at doing the things I never really needed to do. And it sucked at making phone calls, it sucked at syncing, and it sucked at email. What did I REALLY need it to do? Make phone calls, and get email. All the cool features in the world don't count for anything if I never use them and the device sucks at what I DO need it for.
Treos:
Much the same as above, both the Windows and Palm OS versions. Cool features, rarely used. Decent email support, but crappy email interface. Phone was only so-so. Screen sucked hard. Good 3rd party apps that I rarely used, cause if I need to create content that bad, I've got a friggin laptop.
Blackberry:
Unparalleled email device. Blackberry Enterprise Server was more reliable and functional than Goodlink/Exchange ever was. Kill, lock, provision, policy mgmt of the phone, lots of good stuff there. Keyboard was great (the full qwerty one). Sucked for making calls, sucked to look at, media playback was horrific. The Pearl? aesthetically was pretty nice, good form factor, small screen, keyboard not as effective, media playback still kinda sucked, but not as badly as the full models.
iPhone:
I finally have a device that does most of what I want, and does it well. Great for email, great for media, great for web, phone is about as good as I've had in a mobile device (last phone i recall getting better reception out of was an old Motorola v60). Is it perfect? nope. I want task lists. I want better calendar integration. Is it better than the rest for me? Yes. I don't need to have an overcomplicated device that CAN do things I don't need it to. I want something so I don't have to carry a bunch of crap around.
I hardly ever tethered my other devices, so as a bonus, I got to go from a data plan that was $80/month to one that was $20. Doesn't take long to pay for itself at that pace, so I'm not worried about price tag differences.
The simple fact is that Apple made a device that does what I need it to do well, well. Everyone else seems to be trying to sell their device based on the merits of a feature set that I rarely had need for while providing a subpar set of core features that I really want to work nicely.
Advantage Apple.
Interesting. I've been using my Treo 650 for a little short of 2 years now and have been looking into what I want to upgrade to in February when my contract runs out and I can get those nice sign-up discounts. So far I think I'm leaning toward one of the new HTC phones. If I stick with Sprint for the cheap and fast EVDO data plan, it will probably be the "Mogul". If for some unseen reason I'm persuaded to switch to ATT (unlikely due to more expensive data and their involvement in the whole wireless wiretapping thing) I would likely get the TytnII. I haven't really considered the iPhone just because like so many have said, it's missing a lot of the functionality of these other devices. It's a better deal if you're just looking to converge your mp3 player and phone, but since I've been using gmail, google maps, shoutcast radio, opera, good, verichat, agendus....the list goes on...for so long, I don't know that I can give up that freedom for a more appliance-like approach where you are so tied to what the hardware vendor approves for use. I'm also very used to a physical keyboard and I think I would be very frustrated with a touch-only keyboard. Maybe if they add haptic feedback it might get a little easier to use.
I had a Treo for work and I have also owned a sidekick, sidekick II and a sidekick III.. I left it all behind for the iPhone and haven't looked back yet! All I want is iChat and IRC on my iPhone.. Please Apple!!!!
Treo's I don't get, Sidekicks make sense. It's the trend-crowd who value looks over function. Obviously.
I would rather know how many Cingular users who had HTCs and Palms switched to iPhone. That's a better tale to tell.
I wasn't disappointed when I made the switch until I realized the latest firmware version wasn't unlockable -- so I sold mine on eBay and got an older one to unlock myself. But the only reason I wasn't disappointed was because I already knew what to (or what not to) expect. It was a hard-fought battle in my mind between the 8925 and anything else. When I finally allowed myself to consider the iPhone, I finally realized what it was about: it wasn't the extremely capable, all-in-one, save your life device that everyone (read: Jobs and his advertising department along with some Mac-loving hotheads I know) was touting it as. It's simply a nicely-sized, slim phone with a pretty great web-browser and decent features. Suddenly, it was a fight between the features of the Tilt and the form factor of the iPhone. I really loved the GPS, 3G, 3MP camera, video-capture capabilities, and QWERTY keyboard of the Tytn II, but the sacrifice of putting up with all that bulk was just too much. The only phones I've owned have been one of the free Nokias offered with contract sign-up 4 years ago, a RAZR, and most recently a SLVR. I hate bulky things in my front pockets (usually only carrying the SLVR in my right pocket and a pack of gum in my left) so I knew there was no way I could handle the 8925 on a daily basis. The most important thing to me is having a competent web-browser, and even though Safari on the iPhone doesn't have flash, I really do love the zooming, scrolling and input functions that multi-touch makes possible. Next year, what with the new touch-screen Nokias, iPhone 2.0, and 4G coming out, I'm already getting ready to upgrade.