Nine days

In just nine days my life will change. Ok, well maybe not drastically, but then again who knows? You see, I am one of the last few people in the western world not to own a cell phone, but that will soon change. This is strange amongst my peers as I have been a lifelong geek (computer nerd, programmer, etc) and even have had the privilege of working the past 10 years in an industry that helps make the darn things. The lack of a cell phone has been both a source of humility and pride. People are aghast that I've never had one, especially considering my interests and career. People have also been congratulatory for not having fallen prey to the insidious cycle of expensive bills and poor customer support that every derides but can't seem to live without. So soon I shall emerge from my cave: an anthropological oddity of the modern age about to be confronted with a tiny, mass-produced monolith that will thrust me into the future.

So why did it take me so long? Many reasons, but here a few key ones:

• I don't call people a lot. Yes, I'm kind of a stereotypical introvert geek, so there really wasn't much need to be able to contact people anywhere at any time. I also don't get out much, which makes a land line just as convenient.

• Cost vs Benefit. Up until a few years ago, most phones were dumb devices that could make calls. They often included crappy cameras which I would never use because a point-and-shoot would get much better pictures. But they were also WAY too expensive for what they did vs. my needs.

• I use DSL for broadband. Its cheaper than cable and better service, plus if I want to I can chose ISPs (and did use 3rd party ones for a bit). Landline phone is cheaper when packaged with DSL so it just made sense.

So what changed? The cell phone total costs haven't gone down. Plans are still expensive, and good phones are too. However the benefits have been going up as technology has gotten better. There were a lot of nifty gadets that I always thought were neat, but WAY too expensive to own each individually: PDA, GPS, Navigation, etc. In the recent past, the devices that had these combinations usually served the individual purposes poorly. But even throwing these things together wasn't quite enough. Then things changed, and you have to give full credit to Apple for the iPhone on this one - it changed the marketplace. Yes the blackberry deserves some credit too, but Apple made the first true consumer devices that broke down the barriers. Not all at once, but from the first iPhone, which strongly piqued my interest, to the 3G which was droolworthy, and 3GS which was an evolved form of drool which finally brought all the things together, with the biggest part being the apps, and the ability to easily develop your own (and sell them if you so choose). So when am I getting an iPhone? I'm not!

No, in nine days I will be getting my HTC Evo. Why?

• It bests the 3GS hardware wise, and is at least a peer to the next iPhone. 
• It is an Android phone. While Apple has darn good OS, their control and (IMHO) missteps over handling of things in the App store and developers is a turnoff for me.
• The biggest thing is the carrier. Apple went with AT&T which, while not terrible, is not so customer focused. Sprint has been making great strides in this area. They have the 30 day money back guarantee, good coverage in my area, and offer quite a bit more in their plans than the other carriers (all mobile-to-mobile calls included in the contract price, regardless of carrier, no roaming charges, night and weekends starting at 7, unlimited text, and unlimited data, etc). Plus the person I call the most (my sister) is also a sprint customer so going with sprint means it will cost neither of us any minutes.

And speaking of minutes, I don't plan to use many, and never did. Most cell phone companies over the years tried to keep prices high, and just add more minutes to their plans. I won't use them that much in the first place, and free mobile-to-mobile eliminates much of that since cell phones are so pervasive. If they would have offered low cost phones with low minutes I would have already been a customer. Likewise if Apple hadn't gone with AT&T I probably would have had an iPhone 3G when it came out. But nope, to grab this cell phone hold out, Google, HTC, and Sprint win out by a longshot. But I look forward to what the future holds as the competition heats up!