Hell froze over...

I'm still in shock, but I actually went and got an iPhone 3G 8GB from my local AT&T shop.

This wasn't an easy decision, and I *DO* have 30 days to return it, but some of the key features it has were just too compelling. AND, one of the biggest deciding factors of going with AT&T over Sprint was signal strength in my area. The other phone I was *seriously* considering was the Palm Pre, which I think looks like a great phone, and even has some better features than the iPhone... but the AppStore and the apps for the iPhone trump the Pre. I mean... they have a frickin' Kindle app for the iPhone!! So you get access to all the Kindle library and pricing!!!! That's killer! I used to read books on my BlackBerry (read Angels & Demons on it) and found it to be great... but the library was limited and pricing was nearly identical to physical books.

So, back to Sprint and the Palm Pre... my wife and kids are on Sprint for their phones, so I was thinking maybe it would be better to all be on the same account... and the Palm Pre was about to be released and it looks like a really slick phone. However, I've known for a long time that Sprint hasn't been very good where we live, and T-Mobile was in the same boat... but at least with T-Mobile and the ability to use WiFi for my phone was pretty killer. AT&T was never great in my area in the past... but that's a long time ago that I had them, so I decided to compare AT&T with Sprint as far as coverage. AT&T was showing full strength signal and 3G in my area, and Sprint was showing *Roaming*... seriously... not even 1 bar in the surrounding area of where we live... roaming.

There was NO way I could deal with that, and I think it may actually get the rest of my family out of their contracts without paying the fees to cancel (this is what got me out of T-Mobile and they were at least showing 1-3 bars for my area.

So, between the signal strength (and it IS good for me, by the way) and the iPhone AppStore... it won. I'm sure I will find things I dislike and can't work around... but I think I'm finally okay with that. And with the 3.0 update right around the corner (June 8th, 2009) which fixes a LOT of my initial complaints, I think I will be happy.

Switching from Sprint BB to a T-Mobile BB

This is for many reasons... I may name some over the course of time in comparisons, but here are some initial thoughts:

1. My current Sprint BlackBerry will simply go to my wife, so no loss on equipment and all that.
2. My biggest reason for wanting the T-Mobile Curve is because it has WiFi!! Pretty much all cell phone carriers signals suck where I live (except Verizon, but I've grown to hate them and am canceling my service with them... I believe I wrote in previous posts why I dislike them). With WiFi, I don't have to only rely on the carriers signal strength as I can simply use ultra speedy WiFi. This obviously goes far beyond just my house (hotel rooms, etc), but I work out of my house when not traveling and therefore spend probably 90% of my life in my house.
3. T-Mobile has seriously upped their signal game... it looks like I will have a better signal in my house than in the past, so that's a plus.
4. T-Mobile offers @Home for $10/mo. This is essentially making your house a T-Mobile HotSpot and allows your cell phone service to route through your home WiFi!! It provides unlimited calling @Home, and obviously removes the concern of signal strength. ;-)
5. T-Mobile is MUCH less restrictive on their network than Sprint and especially Verizon who is the most prohibitive, even disabling many features on phones.
6. T-Mobile seems to be keeping up with BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) software updates better than Sprint, as my friend & I upgraded our Curve's to the latest BlackBerry OS (4.5.x at the time of this writing) which offers many feature enhancements such as HTML email and real web browsing. Setting all the right things in my Sprint Curve, I just couldn't get those features to work at all (same old ugliness). The T-Mobile Curve worked with all of it (to get those features, the BIS server has to be on the latest version... or at least a version that supports those features).
7. While Sprint certainly created some great plans as far as pricing and features (passing Verizon for value), T-Mobile seems to offer even more for less. Sprint may have some services like the Sprint Music Store (ugh) and SprintTV (even worse ugh... why bother), and I'm betting their cell data speeds are ultimately higher in average (based on signal strength of course), the features that matter most to me are at T-Mobile.
8. Lastly, I found the T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve on Amazon for $25... BEFORE the $100 mail-in rebate!!! That means I will actually MAKE $75 by buying the phone (if I send in the rebate and after the 6-8 week delivery period). Buying the phone from Sprint or T-Mobile costs you $249 up front, then there is the $100 mail-in rebate. To get a phone that will work better for my needs for so little... I couldn't pass it up. The biggest downside, and it's killing me right now because I'm SO impatient, is that it's not in stock and my estimated delivery is between September 11-17... to top it off, I will be traveling the week of the 11th... so my new shiny phone could be waiting for me at home while I'm on the road. :-(

Anyway, these are some of the reasons... like I said, I will probably list more in comparison posts. For now, if someone is trying to decide where to buy the BlackBerry Curve from, I'd say buy it through Amazon and get the T-Mobile Curve. ;-)