In a few months, my iPhone 3G will be three years old. It’s been a great phone, despite consistently mediocre service from the AT&T voice and data networks. More than a phone, my iPhone was my first truly portable computer and completely changed the way that computers fit into my life. Having been a professional Microsoft server guy for over a decade, the switch to Apple was a radical and tumultuous one. Looking back on my reaction to the original iPhone, I’m amazed at how much I missed the point entirely:
Making a phone with no buttons is fucking brilliant, Steve Jobs. Touch screens never wear out or crack or anything.
The iPhone is bigger than the SLVR and the Chocolate and has no keys. Apple’s track record with battery life on the iPod ranged from shit to OK, but cell phone battery life is much more vital to people day in and day out. And if the touch screens are flaky, this could be a huge flop.
Wow, how wrong I was.
See, I was still thinking of “smartphone” as a phone that does some computer-like things. Steve Jobs and the Apple crew realized that a great smartphone would be a portable computer that had, among other things, a phone application. That idea really did change everything.
I was impressed with the first iPhone, but held out for the second version. I wanted third-party apps, 3G data and a GPS chip and the iPhone 3G delivered on all accounts. And I’ve been happy with my iPhone 3G until now.
Yesterday, Apple released version 4.3 of iOS. It has lots of great new features, including Wi-Fi personal hotspot and a faster version of the Safari web browser. But the new operating system won’t run on my iPhone 3G. After a little over two years, it’s just too old. I’m not upset at Apple. I think this is just the new rate of change in mobile computing. Two years and upgrade.
With only a few months until the iPhone 5 is sure to be released, I’m not about to jump to the iPhone 4 right now. But, I will be pre-ordering the iPhone 5 on Verizon as soon as it’s available.