It’s a tricky question but the jerk we call Steve Jobs has made it so easy for me to say no:
- Fixing stuff isn’t a feature: I’m more than pissed about the recessed headphone jack. I had to go out and buy a $10 adapter because Steve said it was the best and only way–it had to be done to make sure the headphone jack survived. Whoops, second gen comes out and it’s back to normal?
- AT&T isn’t worth the hassle: These guys are using Steve as much as they can. Sure, they helped him bring it to the market but they’re milking this deal more than anything (upping the data plan rate?!). The lock-in is bad enough, but now taking away the activation via iTunes? It’s like saying “look how cool and flexible we are–whoa whoops, no we aren’t!”. Plus, I moved away from AT&T for a reason…
- 3G / GPS are silly: I don’t need a super speed connection on my phone. I always have a computer near me–if I really need to sit down and look at some serious web pages then a) I can wait the extra few seconds, or b) I can go use a computer. GPS? The phone already does killer location via towers or wifi–too gimmicky!
- The price: I’m not going to spend a few hundred dollars every few years on a phone when my current one is already (paraphrasing Steve) “lightyears” ahead of the competition. I’m ahead of the curve (Blackberry pun?) and figure that my $200 will be worth over $3,000 dollars at retirement, haha.
But seriously, as great as the devices are it’s so hard to keep doing this to people. Steve is evil and people love him. Microsoft is trying so hard to be nice and people still hate it….