I may have been slightly sarcastic when I wrote that the Nokia N97 is the ‘ultimate geek phone’ (although given the masochistic approach of most geeks to technology, I’m probably not too far wrong!), but I think it’s now safe to say that the iPhone is no longer a talking point for any self-respecting geek.
Sure you can mention specific apps, but with over 100,000 and growing, the novelty value is pretty rare.
And the signs are all around us – a recent Mashable vote gave Android victory over the iPhone at a 2:1 ratio (interestingly the iPhone won when they last ran the same vote, just one month ago), the UK supermarket chain Tesco is now going to stock the phone, and when I think about it, it’s hard to think of a single hardcore geek in my close network who is talking about the iPhone, or taking the time to show it off. They may still have one as their regular phone, it might still be brilliant for many things, and it may rank as one of the best gadgets of the current era.
But it’s mainstream now, so it’s time to move on…
It seems every card-carrying geek I spent time with now is either clinging to their Magic
, showing off their Hero
, or lusting after a Droid/Milestone.
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1 Andrew Girdwood // Nov 30, 2009 at 11:41 am
I had my iPhone stolen a year ago. I was so frustrated with it (partly an anger response after the theft) that I didn't replace it. The battery died so quickly I had it a case that contained a spare battery and a solar panel.
I went with a Sony Ericsson X1. I like the phone but it comes with Windows Mobile.
There's little chance I'll go back to the current crop of iPhones. Exactly as your post touches on.. I'm currently trying to wait for the HTC Dragon (or perhaps the X10). Geek friends have all bought the HTC Hero recently in favour of the iPhone.
2 Dan Thornton // Dec 5, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Cheers for sharing, and sorry to hear you phone got pinched. If I'm going to buy a new phone, this second, with my own money, I'd be likely to go straight for the HTC Hero – the Dragon and Droid are interesting, and certainly one of the key things for me is battery life.
The only other solution, which is what I currently do, is to carry two phones – one smart phone for working/emailing/photography etc, and one 'dumbphone', in this case an old Sony Eriksson walkman phone, which I can charge for 3 or 4 days of use, and use for listening to the odd podcast or album when there's nothing else around… And the best thing is that it's on Pay-As-You-Go, so it costs me nothing and means I can always be alerted by key people in an emergency without having any battery problems…
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