Smartphone contest ended without a winner

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Bruce Keener

Much to my disappointment, no entries were submitted for the best smartphone contest, so we are without a winner.

I am interested in your views as to why there were no entries. Some possibilities that come to my mind are:

  • There’s not enough time for you to do a good write-up with all of the other things you must do.
  • The prize of $25 was not sufficiently enticing or motivating.
  • The subject is not of interest to you.
  • You’d like to know the answer yourself, but do not have the data to say for sure.

No doubt there are other reasons. Regardless, i would appreciate your thoughts on this. You can respond in the comments or send me an email: brucekeener at gmail.com

Thank you and take care.

Update: I noticed that someone had landed on this site by doing a search for “what is the best smartphone for doctors?” This rang a bell in my memory and I searched the Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine archives to come up with an entry (which is no longer). That entry gave the opinion of a doctor who has tried out several different phones. Incidentally, he recommended the Verizon i730 because of its screen size, good keyboard, keyboard or touchscreen input, one-handed operation, accommodates a lot of medical software, and so on. A good friend of mine has the i730 and a T-Mobile Dash, and loves both … he has often said that the i730 is a real workhorse.

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  • http://palmdiscovery.net May C

    I guess for me, the money wasn’t much of a motivator. I do most of my blogging for the fun and because I wanted to share my enthusiasm, rather than the monetary gains. I guess I’m probably in the minority since a lot of people ask me why I do what I do without getting “paid”.

    You wanted a smartphone suggestion but didn’t really give more details on what you want. It’s hard to provide you with suggestions if you don’t know what is important. People want blackberrys because they HAVE to stay on top of their email. Some want Win Mobile smartphones because they want the power of a computer in a portable and pocketable size. Some want the basic and simplicity of a Palm Treo because it works. Being a webmaster of a Palm blog, obviously I’m a bit biased towards the Palm Treo.

    I own a Treo 650 and I think it’s a great device but the 680 with more RAM is much better for stability. The Win Mobile 700wx is also not bad.

    I’d suggest going out and trying and playing around with the various smartphones from friends, cell phone stores so that you can get a better idea of what you like, don’t like, etc. Remember, it’s very much a personal preference and choice and although you can get a whole bunch of ideas from people, only you know what you like or don’t like.

    Hope that gives you an idea why I didn’t submit an entry. Of course, you can also check out my Palm Discovery blog for more info on the Treo devices I’ve previously reviewed.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Thank you, May C. Really good feedback, and I can see that I did not set the contest up for success now that I reflect on your points.

    Thank you, again. Just the kind of straightforward feedback I had hoped to receive.

    BTW, I have added your blog to my BlogRoll … you have some really useful information there.

  • capo

    I’d go with option #4 – I don’t have much experience with smartphones. My employer provides me with the cheapest possible device and will not pay for service if I choose to buy a different unit. Since it’s almost entirely for their benefit that I carry a cell phone to begin with, I use the basic freebie phone that they provide. I looked briefly at a Windows Mobile Treo – I have an Axim x50v which gets little use now and would be interested in a device that could act as a phone/PDA/MP3 player in one unit. The Treo seemed interesting, but the display was very small and my eyes are getting bad. (a combination of aging and spending all day squinting at a bank of computer monitors) As a result, the Treo wouldn’t be practical for me.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Thanks, capo. I suspect a lot of folks are stuck with the phone that they get from work (and “free is good”).

    My eyes are not so great either, mostly for the same reasons you cite. The Dash does okay for me, and the Treo screen was tolerable (although the Dash seems more readable), but I was just responding to pritchett4 in another post in which he said he likes sticking with his Nokia and Palm T3. I had to agree that maybe that is not such a bad way to, after all. You always have to go the route of smaller screen or smaller keyboard or loss of touchscreen or battery life or something when you go with a converged device.

    I’ve been wanting a device that is good for email, a great PDA, and a great phone all rolled into one, and I am just not sure there is one that would be truly satisfying on all accounts, not without my spending $600 or $700 on one, and that just doesn’t make sense to me at this point.

    Anyway, I appreciate the feedback. It’s helping me to think a little more about what really is right for me.

  • http://palmdiscovery.net May C

    Thanks for adding me to the blogroll. I just checked my links and you’re already there!

    Again, I do hope that you will take some time to check out what’s available where you are and determine what features you want that are extremely important to you (phone, email, keyboard, large screen, etc) and give them a priority number so that you will understand what will provide you with the best combination of features you want.

    With regards to squinting, there is a magnifying screen solution although I’m not sure how many will want to get an extra accessory to enable them to view the screen better. Check out Magnifico Plus from OfficeOnTheGo. Not cheap but I’m sure some people may find it useful.