186 - Cell Phone decisions

Its been over 2 years since I got a new cell phone. My last cell phone got run over by a truck so I got the insurance on this cell phone and nothing happened! Of Course! I have Verizon service with a Palm Centro smartphone. I don't have Internet or text messaging. I use the phone as not only my mobile phone, but my contacts, calendar and data collection system. Most of those applications (apps) are by palm. The phone will also play music and I have a 4GB mini sd card for the music.

I'm giving you what I have before we take a look at decisions I'm contemplating. I hope by going over my decision making process it will help in your next cell phone selection.

I'm looking at a pretty big change this time. I'm going to add Internet and text messaging to my plan. I've seen a need in my business to have both of those features. Although my present Palm Centro can accommodate those features, the screen is so small that Internet doesn't show up so well. My choice really has two decision: 1. Will I stay with Verizon or will I go with a different wireless provider. 2. What phone platform will pick?

Verizon has been reliable and has coverage everywhere I go (except my home!). In the Alleghany Highlands the choices really are Verizon, ntelos and US Cellular. AT&T (and their attractive iPhone) has only one tower in the area so that is not a good option. Sprint, Nextel and other providers aren't in our area. We had US Cellular before Verizon and the coverage is spotty. Another issue is that their phones are always older models with few features.

ntelos is the new player in our area and I gave them a good look. Their plan for Cell, Text and Internet is actually a few dollars cheaper then Verizon. They also claim to have just as large of coverage area as Verizon. They partner with Sprint and Nextel to use their tower system. The kicker with ntelos is they charge a $35 per line (we have two) one time activation fee. So to encourage us to change to their system they want to charge me $70. Wow that's great marketing.

So I narrowed my choice down to Verizon and ntelos. The next step is to look at the phones. There are 3 platforms (or cell operating systems) that aren't Apple based (only AT&T has Apple). The platforms are Android (by Google), BlackBerry (by RIM) and Web OS (by Palm). Android is the largest seller of smart phone operating system (you've all heard the DROID ads!) It is an open system (that means anyone can write software for the systems) and has over 100,000 applications (apps). Blackberry is known for its email capabilities and web browser. The problem I have with Blackberry is I really dislike their sync program that transfers Outlook data to the phone. They also generally have small, lo resolution screens which is what I have on my existing phone. Web OS is the Palm (now owned by HP) cell system That is very easy to use and has 1,000 of apps that do most that you want. Its also very similar to the phone I have now.

So now I've narrowed my choices down to Android OS and Web OS. Given that criteria I then dropped ntelos. ntelos has no Web OS phones and only 2 Android OS phones. Of the 2 phones, one doesn't have a keyboard. I haven't found the screen only system that I can type on yet (maybe the iPhones). The last ntelos phone is a Motorola Milestone. An older (2 year old) phone with an older release of Android (2.0 vs the new 2.2). Not the most exciting phone out there. Verizon has tons of choices. They understand that cell phone choice is all about phone choices. They have 10 different phones with Android OS and 2 with web OS.

So for now, I've decided to stay with Verizon (no activation charges) and then pick from the multiple phone choices. I will say that HP (Palm) just announced a new phone from Verizon (the Palm Pre2) that I'll wait to see before I make my final choice.