Why I’m Not Getting an Anroid Phone. Yet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I watched large chunks of last week’s Google I/O event, and was so impressed at that time that I was darned-near ready to just go out and buy an Android Phone at Verizon. I am a true geek at heart (and in practice), even if I am almost 61, and Android seems plenty geeky to me. Plus, at my age, I do not want to put up with dropped calls … for one, I have no patience whatsoever, and for another, what if I needed prompt medical help and my phone failed me? Thinking about that made Verizon sound attractive. I’ve been in the middle of Nebraska before, far away from any town, and was able to make a call with a Verizon phone, whereas my AT&T phone showed “no service.”

But, having been an early adopter for many years, I have finally learned to exercise some restraint when I am thinking of making a purchase. So, I calmed down a bit and decided to not go phone shopping just yet.

That turned out being a smart decision. One of the things that had me thinking about switching phones, even though I love my iPhone (whole bunches), is that I had become concerned that I might be experiencing some dropped calls. Certainly my signal level, as indicated by the number of bars on my iPhone display, varies a lot. Even at home, it varies from 1 to 5, and I get concerned when the number of bars is less than 3.

But it turns out that there is a way to determine how many dropped calls one has had with an iPhone, and I found out that I have only had 15 total, and that all of them were in October and November of last year. (Thinking back to that period, I am suspecting that the dropped calls were dropped on the other end, based on a particular person I recall having called me back then.)

Note: The site to use to find out how many dropped calls your iPhone has had is: http://www.worstphoneever.com/ (learned of them via TechCrunch)

Plus, at the same time that I was looking over this result, I had almost convinced myself to get an iPad. And, since my retirement income is a good bit less than what I made when I worked, I have placed a rule on myself to not buy too many toys at once, and to spread out my purchases of things I really don’t need. Plus, I hate paying early termination fees to any carrier.

And, although Google tries to come across as all goodie-goodie, my many years of living on this planet has taught me to be skeptical of anyone who tells you they are good, and have zero “evil” intentions. When people say that too much, and when they “smile too much,” my BS detector starts alarming. Google may be the greatest thing to ever happen to this generation. Maybe it is pure of heart. Maybe it will stay open source, and always strive to give me the best experience it can deliver on the web and in its devices. But I am skeptical and need more time to fully trust them with something as important to me as a good, dependable smartphone.

The thing with Apple is that, as far as I can tell, I get the straight scoop from them. Steve Jobs may very well be an asshole. But, as far as I know, he doesn’t claim to be anything else. What he does claim to be, though, is someone who delivers great quality for his customers, and a remarkable user experience. Every Apple product I’ve used has showed his claims to be true. (For all I know, Jobs is a saint, and Google is a group of saints, but that’s not the point: for now, I trust one and reserve judgment on the other until more data is in.)

Anyhow, what my decision means is that I am not rushing out to get an Android phone. It does not mean that I will never get one. It means that I am just showing some restraint (for a change).

It is nice to know, by the way, that my iPhone has performed so well. Makes me feel a lot better about depending on it.

Update: Then, to further crystalize my decision, I came across the following points raised today in marco.org, in his discussion of Verizon’s phone service:

It’s not that great. Among the problems I’ve had:

• Indoor reception is spotty, even in otherwise strong areas. Certain rooms of houses are dead zones for no apparent reason. Sometimes, entire houses or apartments get no usable service level at all.
• Often, calls go straight to voicemail without ringing the phone, even when the phone has full reception. This happens more frequently in crowded areas, like Manhattan.
• Verizon’s customer service and sales staff seems like they have never used, sold, or heard of data service on anything. The salespeople too afraid to say “I don’t know” will give you false information, and the customer service people will bounce you around in transfers because they have no idea what to do with data-service issues.
• Every change to your plan or billing info is likely to be screwed up at least once.

I do recall reading that GSM (AT&T) is better for indoors than CDMA (Verizon), and I’m indoors like 99% of the time. (I don’t plan on being in the middle of Nebraska again.) So, assuming the above points would apply to the area in which I live, my decision to stick with my iPhone looks like a good one for me. Of course, I am not trying to influence your decision, one way or the other. I would think you would want to look at as many pro’s and con’s as you could digest before making a decision. I’m just telling you the thinking that has gone into my decision. (And, I could change my mind someday if a different set of data influences me enough.)