Introduction

Last year I tested the iPhone 3G, hated it, and returned it after two weeks.  After being a BlackBerry user for 2 years, there were too many things I had to give up if I wanted to make the move to the iPhone, and I just wasn’t going to do it.  Here we are 11 months, one hardware version and one software version later, with the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 3.0 software update, and I finally feel like Apple got it right.

When I wrote about my experience last fall, I compared the two “Smart Phones” based on my daily usage and what is important to me.  The combination of the new hardware and new software has eliminated almost all of those shortcomings and the rest are now out-weighed by the advantages to my daily life on the road supporting clients.  Note that as last time, your mileage may vary.

To recap the basic issues I had with the previous generation…

1. AT&T’s coverage isn’t as good as what we had with Sprint.  While this isn’t a purely “iPhone” issue, AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple makes it part of the equation.
2. Calling frequently used numbers took too many steps.
3. Lack of voice dialing.
4. Searching for contacts took too many steps.
5. Not enough email storage on the iPhone; it was limited to 200 messages.
6. No way to search your email.
7. Only one email signature, regardless of the number of accounts.
8. Navigating multiple email accounts was cumbersome.
9. Couldn’t use the iPhone as an internet connection for my laptop via tethering.

In a nutshell, six of the above nine shortcomings have been fixed with the current generation, and one more should be fixed by the end of this month, but more on that later.  Let me touch on each point for just a minute.

AT&T

I still hate them.  They are a huge company with departments that don’t talk to each other, customer service is sorely lacking, and the coverage in LA still isn’t as good as Sprint’s. We all experience more dropped calls (despite AT&T's adds to the contrary) and have poor audio quality at times when our phones show four full bars of signal strength.  However, I will admit that it’s better than it was a year ago.  I’m not sure if their network matured in the last 12 months, if there was an under-the-hood change in the new hardware, or a combination thereof, but the reception is definitely better than when I tested the iPhone 3G last year.  There are rumors that Verizon will become an option for Apple because of their planned role out of a 4G network in 2010, but nation wide coverage isn’t expected to be complete until 2013 (so I won’t hold my breath).