5 Big Reasons Why I Won't Buy an iPhone

A number of friends have asked me why I haven't already jumped on the bandwagon and purchased an iPhone like the other 700,000+ people that have already taken the plunge:

1. Price: I don't want to strap $600 to my hip, just ready to drop into the toilet, in the street, etc. My Pearl cost me $50 after rebates, 2 year contract, etc....and who knows--I wouldn't be surprised if there are stories of iPhones being stolen right off of people's belts!

2. Blackberry server: my Blackberry automatically syncs everything (email, contacts, calendar, etc) over-the-air with a server in our corporate data center. That means I never have to sync it with Outlook, and if I do drop it into the toilet, it takes 15 minutes to get the new one operational. The Blackberry server also allows me to do cool things like create/accept meeting invitations, look up anyone in the company directory, and lots of other cool features.

3. Capacity: the biggest iPhone only has 8GB of storage. My Pearl has 2GB that I rarely use, as I rely on my 30GB iPod Video for entertainment purposes. It plays music and video, but the iPod Video is still superior for entertainment.

4. Size: my Pearl weighs only 3 ounces and is 4"x2"x0.5" in size. The iPhone weighs nearly 5 ounces and is 4.5"x2.4"x0.5" in size. I really, really like the small size of the Pearl.

5. Battery: the iPhone has a permanently installed (soldered) battery that is not replaceable in the field. In contrast, it takes about 5 seconds to replace the Pearl's battery.

I'll wait for a while and see what develops. I like a lot of the features of the iPhone, but at this point the Pearl satisfies all of my main requirements.