More Thoughts on a New Mobile/Tariff

Image via CrunchBase

Yesterday, I talked a bit more about my thoughts on getting a new mobile. I got a bit of grief from the Boy (well, not grief, but half decent reasoning) for wanting to get an iPhone as it is kinda overhyped and expensive. Fair enough, and some good points were made.

For starters, I don’t really need the iPhone as iPod. I’d rather get a new iPod at some point in the future (though my iPod mini is still fine!). I hate all-singing, all-dancing devices that do everything, and I would not want to use my phoen as mp3, camera, or anything like that. But I do need some kind of smartphone. If ever I get a new phone, it needs to be wifi-enabled, and let me check my email, do tweets, and a bit of surfing if I need to find out anything (e.g. Lothian buses bustracker and other useful things).

What I don’t need is for it to be compatible with any Microsoft products including Outlook etc. – my mobile is a leisure device and not of the sort that I need to use as a ‘mobile office’. On my N95 I only check my gmail for instance and not my work email!

In fact, my current phone is pretty decent. The problem is it’s pay as you go, and it’s with Orange, and I think I would like to be able to phone and text people more without worrying about the money :p  – even the Wifi on my phone serves me well enough. Certain pubs etc. have free Wifi anyway, so I can always send tweets from there. Realistically, I won’t need to have access to free Wifi all the time.

Finally, it might be too hasty to get an iPhone now that the ‘Googlephone’ with Android is out. It would be lovely to have a next-gen smartphone wtih Android. At least it won’t lock you in to proprietary software. So I might just go for a short-term contract (I think there are now contracts where you’re not locked in to 12 bloody months!) and wait till early next year, and then go for a decent Android-powered device 🙂