It was the constant commercials that got me.
Did everyone see the four iPhone commercials during CSI: Miami or does Apple have a direct line to my HDTV? They did the trick and now I should come clean: I bought an 8 GB iPhone this afternoon. It was quite the Twitter event as well. Matt Miller said he was 90% sure he'd go back and buy one, so I issued the challenge. "I will if you will" and then the virtual race was on!
Officially, Matt bought and activated his phone before I did. To be fair: I had to travel three times as far and cover a press event. Plus, I'm three hours ahead of Seattle on the clock, so I think it's a draw. :) Needless to say: I've been re-evaluating my needs for a while and the "playtime" in the Apple store last week won me over. I'll be keeping my XV6700 and getting my Dash unlocked since it will work with the AT&T SIM. Gee, just when you thought we were done with iPhone coverage!
Congrats on the iPhone. I was hoping more would jump onboard. I've been loving mine since I paid some kid to stand in line for me back on June 29th.
It has been bugging me a bit that everyone in the TabletPC/UMPC world has been trying so hard to not talk about the iPhone. Guess they figured it was talked about enough everywhere else.
Welcome to the iPhone community!!!
Posted by: Skip Coghill | July 17, 2007 at 07:16 PM
Kevin, following this on Twitter was hysterical. Thanks for that. Now I'll get to live vicariously through your adventures. I'm worried though. Your adventures with a PPC 6700 are what through me over the top there.
Posted by: Warner Crocker | July 17, 2007 at 07:49 PM
I am disappointed! I hoped the guy who usually does sound reviews and adds his good opinions to the mobile community could be strong enough. Imagine the Prada Phone had the shortcomings of the Apple Phone; everybody would have ripped it to pieces for lacking cut-and-paste alone.
Although I am sad to read this, I am happy for you.
A reader from afar.
Momt
Posted by: Momt | July 17, 2007 at 07:53 PM
I haven't seen any iPhone commercials in a while, but back when they were building up to the release day, I saw them all the time, and the little jingle from those ads was in my head all the time. :) I'm going to resist the lure of the iPhone (famous last words?). I'd rather have a touchscreen iPod with more storage (would be cool if it were WiFi-enabled, though!), or the ultra-portable Mac laptop that people keep saying is forthcoming. I =really= want a Mac laptop (tablet!).
Posted by: Jezlyn | July 17, 2007 at 07:58 PM
Considering that the blog is about mobile devices, not an entirely unheard of development. I just hope that this doesn't turn in to another iPhone lovefest that has infected other blogs.
Posted by: T Man | July 17, 2007 at 08:20 PM
Haha... Welcome to the club, Kevin! I knew it was only a matter of time until ome of you at JKOTR got an iPhone :)
Posted by: tnkgrl | July 17, 2007 at 08:24 PM
oh no, I am surrounded by iPhonies. :)
Posted by: James Kendrick | July 17, 2007 at 08:46 PM
Marketing works.
Congrats on your new phone, I still know, despite Apple's attempts otherwise, it isn't the phone for me.
Posted by: Aaron Walker | July 17, 2007 at 11:19 PM
They had me at the PC/Mac Guys commercials when I switched over to Mac, and taking from Jerry McGuire, "they had me at Hello" when it came to the iPhone. Actually, it was before the "Hello" commercials at the Academy Awards - more like the Macworld Keynote, but who's counting?
Congratulations, and welcome!
Posted by: Raphael Salgado | July 17, 2007 at 11:36 PM
I am sad that you went back on your argument. For me, the iPhone ads look cheaper by the day. If anything, I thought the Sprint Mogul and the Verizon Blackberry 8830 would have been your choices. Hope you enjoy your iPhone.
Posted by: xanekka | July 18, 2007 at 12:44 AM
I find it sad that people are willing to seriously compromise just to get something that's fashionable. I think GottaBeMobile is now the only mobile tech site worth taking seriously (and no, they haven't sent me one of those little blue men yet). :)
Posted by: John in Norway | July 18, 2007 at 03:42 AM
Interesting comments! What may have come across as a post and purchase just to be "fashionable" actually had quite a bit of thought involved. I only had a few minutes last night to ink out the post, so I focused briefly on the "how it actually happened." Truth be told: I've had a number of e-mail conversations and discussions over Skype with James and Matt (mostly Matt, so blame him! ;) ) on an iPhone purchase pros and cons. As I've blogged before, I'm using my smartphone functions less and less due to my nearly constant UMPC usage. The sheer number of iPhone apps/services that have popped up so quickly were another eye-opener to me. My e-mail from my hosted Exchange server is available to me via IMAP as well. I'd love for it to be a two-way synch and I expect that will happen soon. I've also signed up for a demo/trial of the Synchronica service that will provide the rest of my Exchange data; I think that's worthy of a test and a report to the readers.
What's most interesting about all of this is the true shift to services. We've been moving from software to services for quite some time, but this might be the first consumer device that really pins success on the services. Should be interesting to watch.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | July 18, 2007 at 06:39 AM
Talking to Matt Miller, who returned his iPhone and then bought another one after a few days, for him the iPhone is just plain FUN. That is not a fashionable thing but a very good one indeed. Have fun, Kevin.
Posted by: James Kendrick | July 18, 2007 at 06:41 AM
I didn't need to waste 600 dollars on an iphone to have fun. Just reading about you guys and your iphone antics is all the iphone fun I need. :)
That's three iphones in two sentences! See the fun I'm having?
Posted by: John in Norway | July 18, 2007 at 07:31 AM
LOL...And here I thought you were in the clear since your initial give in to Apple marketing during launch weekend. Well congrats, the iPhone is a beautiful device, just missing too much for me to really want it. I almost gave in to the marketing machine on iDay as well but luckily I was able to resist and came to my senses. I'm holding out for the touch screen iPod. Enjoy your new gadget!
Posted by: Jose R. Ortiz | July 18, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Kevin:
I got some fondle-time in with the iPhone last Sunday too. Played with it for a good half hour at the Apple store and Mike at the Biltmore store answered every question I had. I wanted to confirm Bluetooth A2DP was absent so he let me pair my Jabra BT8010 and verify it.
Still ... The lack of a Flash browser, Bluetooth A2DP, Blutooth DUN, and 3G are insurmountable to me. If it were an 8GB iPod's price, I'd buy it because I need a new iPod anyway. I can't justify $600+Contract yet.
Posted by: ThoughtFix | July 18, 2007 at 12:12 PM
First there came peer pressure, then after Web 2.0 came along there was: Twitter Pressure.
Posted by: Scotty | July 18, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Grrrr...
Congrats. YOU are now the Biggest Fiend of JK on the Run.
Darth -- uh, James has trained you well.
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 18, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Gee Mike, does that mean I'm no longer his Padawan Learner in the ways of the Mobile Force? ;)
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | July 18, 2007 at 04:28 PM
You have graduated. Start the wheezy breathing!
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 19, 2007 at 07:13 AM
Well done! We're still waiting here in Canada. :)
Posted by: Neil Anderson | July 22, 2007 at 07:26 PM