Why I Don't Own An iPhone

By J. Allen Leinberger

I just don't need it.
I have a perfectly good cell phone with a Bluetooth earpiece that works just fine. I can talk to people as I drive or as I tee off. I don’t need it to play games or take pictures. I have the same ring tone (The James Bond Theme) that I had when I got it.
I have an iPod that holds more music than I can load in. What isn’t loaded I probably don’t want. It has any number of TV shows and videos that I intend to get around to watching someday, but a lot of what I have downloaded were the pilot episodes of shows that have been canceled already. If I want to watch TV, I have a 42-inch flat screen HDTV that looks just fine, thank you.
I have a Palm Pilot. Correctly I have a Palm TX device that keeps my schedule as well as my contacts and other info. It loads down to my computer so I always have backup on that info.
Granted, I feel like Batman with a utility belt when I snap all three items on, but I feel secure. I once dropped my Palm T3 and it shattered. Had it been my phone and music player and camera, it all would have gone in one moment.
Then there is the problem of constant changes with the iPhone. The price has dropped down to $200. The newer phones have much larger capacity and are able to do more. Third party applications can now be added but only as they are downloaded from the iTunes Website. There are constant complaints from these third party developers that updates to the apps are not getting out on time.
Most of these apps are things that I really don’t need anyhow. Sure, it’s nice to be able to get the latest ball score. Here in Southern California you don’t need much of a weather support. Just look outside. I don’t buy stocks (thank goodness), so why would I need a stock report app?
Many of the apps are for gamers. Too many! All I need is a good solitaire game, and I have that on the Palm device. If I were going to spend thatkind of money for a portable gaming device, I would get something like a Game Boy. But I won’t. Like the song says, “Call me old fashioned, say I’m over the hill.”
If you really wanted the apps that are now available, you could get an iPod Touch, which is essentially the same device without the phone. It will let you Wi-Fi your contact to iTunes and download all of those silly apps.
Then too, many new developments in the portable field involve physical changes that drive companies like Ontario’s Macally crazy as they try to keep up with new sizes with plug-ins on the bottom instead of the top, which requires retooling for covers and adapters.
The biggest iPhone, as I write this, is 16 gigabytes. My iPod is 30 gigs and it’s only half full. The new iPod Classic is as big as 160 gigs. The iPhone will not hold my music because it has all of the other functions tied up in the hard drive.
Besides, if I buy the 16-gig iPhone, Apple will come out with the 32-gig version by Christmas.
Have I mentioned the price? Yes, I did. The original iPhone cost $400. The new one, like I said, has been cut in half. But AT&T, the only company that is iPhone-compliant, requires a 2-year commitment for $60 per month. Texting is extra.
And remember, many of us don’t even like AT&T, or we are already committed to Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile or some other company which will charge you a disconnect fee if you transfer.
And do you even know what the new iPhone is? It’s called the iPhone 2.0, but it is also the iPhone 3G. The 3G has to do with AT&T’s third generation High Speed Downlink system, which is actually better and faster than the original EDGE system in the original more expensive iPhone.
Of course, even my Palm device has a Wi-Fi function, as does the iPod Touch and the original iPhone, so who needs the 3G stuff anyhow.
Some 15 years ago, Peter Drucker of the Claremont Institute said that the fax, the phone and the modem were the modern office. New technology has advanced so much that I could, and have, sat on the beach in Cabo and taken care of business. Many people complain that it gets harder and harder to find someplace that is not Wi-Fi compliant so that they truly can get away. Even in Tahiti most of the best hotels are wired now, I’m told.
To be able to be in contact from anywhere in the world is a marvelous thing. Business gets done 24 -7. Troops in Iraq keep in touch with the family without standing in line for the use of a phone, as I had to in my 2-stripe days many years ago.
There is more computer power in the palm of my hand than that which brought Apollo 13 back from the moon. But I just don’t need all of that, thank you.