[Mikey]

I've owned PDA's since the handheld PC days when the screens were monochrome, to almost every iPAQ up to the h5550, followed by my current Dell Axim x50v, as they were always very handy for someone who is always away from the office in field management, completely replacing my paper-based DayTimer system. When WM came out with Cingular's 8150, followed by twice trying the Treo 750, as well as Palm's Treo 650, I tried to converge from a BlackBerry & my handy x50v, but WM devices are a real pain to a power user, especially out of the box. We own a small business of 26 Papa John's Pizza restaurants in 3 states. I run one of those state's 13 stores. We never had the exchange server / hosted email service in house, therefor, BlackBerry Web client was awesome in that it was easy & it just worked. When I attempted to switch to W5, 6, & 6.1 devices, each time I received similar email AND syncing errors. I thought I couldn't converge. I kept the Axim in the back pocket & the BB Pearl in the holster. I really like my Pocket Informant (since 2002 sometime), Pocket Quicken 2.5, Laridian's PocketBible, e-Wallet, & ListPro Professional to name a few.

Then came the iPhone 2G about 8 months ago. In one word, EASY. Similar to my BlackBerry but better, it has just worked for 8 months. No need to carry the BlackBerry AND the Axim. The calendar is pretty good. I now have Bible & E-Wallet on the device, with software titles adding daily, granted most are not worth any professional value, but some are. Apple also has the software store figured out, only taking 30% as I understand it, vs. Handango's raping.

Apple has a huge advatange in the way they chose to sell their software / devices DIRECT. This gives them the ability to better fix problems, when they do occur, AND they will occur, no matter the platform you choose to go with.

My best friend upgraded to the new iPhone & is having some problems with reception, but no more than we've both had with the underpowered & low memory Palm Treo 750, etc. that could not take on 2 calls coming within moments of each other. Apple WILL resolve this problem, I believe, with a much BETTER solution & MUCH quicker timeline than Windows Mobile. Question: How long has WM 6.1 been out? It was just announced for AT&T's Tilt last week or so, proving my point exactly. Or what about all of us who felt slighted by the fact our device that we paid $600+ for wasn't even getting the new upgrade?

There are many reasons that MS will always be slower at implementation than Apple from here on, but my point is that Apple WILL fix their issues much sooner than MS will AND the device will work for the masses. Do you guys realize that my mother could pick up the iPhone & set up email & WiFi on it without a manual? I personally was never able to have much of an experience at all with any WM device on WiFi, sometimes couldn't even figure out how to get on the network. I completely understand why the world loves Apple products, as I myself own the iPhome 2G, iPod 60GB Video, & the Shuffle. This is coming from a once die-hard Pocket PC fan who owned Jornada's, iPAQs, Dell's, Palms, etc. Apple is the way for me now.