New Phone maybe Windows Phone 7

My iPhone 3G is old, its starting to give me problems so Im thinking of upgrading, should I stick with the iPhone series and upgrade to iPhone 4S or Im thinking of switching to Windows Phone, as AT&T my carrier has a few of those.  Honestly tho, which one is better and what benefits would I have of switching to a Windows Phone.  My iPhone was a wonderful assistant and I am blessed it lasted this long. 

God bless

In your cae, I see no reason to switch away from the Jesus phone.

http://gizmodo.com/261886/analyst-the-iphone-really-is-the-jesusphone 

If you want to develop go with an iPhone or Android. The iPhone development environment is more mature and Android doesn't charge you $99 a year to install your own apps on your own phone.   

If you just want to be a consumer then I'd say it is really up to you.

Android is perhaps the least well designed of the three with it burning through battery like it was unlimited, having an inconsistent UI, and generally being poorly thought out. But in exchange it is entirely customisable, a lot of the mistakes Google has made can be corrected, a lot of the missing piece of the puzzle are replaceable, and you can make the phone how you want it.    

The iPhone has by far the best music experience (dedicated sound decoder), has a lot of content (apps, videos, and music), and a very consistent UI. It certainly grants you much less freedom than Android but in exchange there is a lot less that can go wrong. The thing with iPhone for either good or bad is that it is consistent and you know what you will get with it. No surprises. 

WP7 is like a more exciting younger brother of the iPhone. It has a dramatically different UI and a very consistent look almost enforced on apps. It has good battery life compared to Android and things "just work" in a very iPhone way. Downsides are the lack of content (apps, video, etc). The fact that tons of stuff requires an internet connection (goes through Bing). The fact that tons of stuff goes through Live Accounts (X-Box Live, HotMail, etc). And the fact that Microsoft has released a tiered app development framework only allowing trusted partners access to certain features, dramatically limiting the competition within the market and almost choking its own platform to death.   

I've spent the last few months making the same decision you have (iPhone Vs. Android Vs. WP7) and as much as I like the WP7 UI and the dedicated camera button, I think the ecosystem of WP7 is by far the worst (even considering iPhone is OS X toolchain only).

From what I've read they have given Nokia "special" access to the system to develop apps, just that entire concept that different manufacturers get different app access to their own hardware scares me. The fact that the emulator is useless scares me. The fact that it is $99 to run your own apps scares me. The fact that it was and is impossible to develop a IM-like application without having Microsoft hardcode it into the OS its self scares me. WP7 might never take off because Microsoft created an anti-developer platform. They hate developers. I'm skipping. 

@PaoloM: If you can afford an iPhone, then stay with the iPhone. Android is much cheaper but good. WP7 is better than Android, but immature, so your wonderful assistant would be less so at this point in time.

@ManipUni: I'd say that if you want to develop, first, pick the development platform that you're most familiar with. Second, if you want to actually make money, pick the platform that has the greatest potential for user base growth relative to the current size of its associated market place.

@cbae: That's all well and good if you're on Microsoft's authorised list of apps you can develop, otherwise no deal. Yes, I can make an app which makes various sound effects when I press the buttons, but want to make anything with a background process or that uses the hardware in a novel way then think again. 

Plus I think your profits as an app developer has more to do with the size of the user market and less to do with the market's ability to grow. If I release a successful iPhone app today I could have a million users by next week all paying me a few dollars, if I released a WP7 app this week I might have less than 1/4th that many by next week and the rest at some point in the distant vague future.  

Yes, you can gain a foothold in WP7's ecosystem by being there early, but users have no real loyalty and will happily jump ship the second a competitor releases a better product. 

@ManipUni: Or you might release a WP7 app and get a couple of million people spending a couple of dollars, wheras the iPhone version disappears into a sea of other applications and goes unnoticed and unpurchased.

There's no real guarantee that a bigger market necessarily leads to higher takeup. The Mac shareware market, for example, has generally worked better for software devs than the equivalent Windows shareware market.

48 minutes ago, AndyC wrote

@ManipUni: Or you might release a WP7 app and get a couple of million people spending a couple of dollars, wheras the iPhone version disappears into a sea of other applications and goes unnoticed and unpurchased.

Until everyone else does the same and the WP7 market becomes just as filled with clutter as the others.

2 hours ago, ManipUni wrote

From what I've read they have given Nokia "special" access to the system to develop apps, just that entire concept that different manufacturers get different app access to their own hardware scares me. The fact that the emulator is useless scares me. The fact that it is $99 to run your own apps scares me. The fact that it was and is impossible to develop a IM-like application without having Microsoft hardcode it into the OS its self scares me. WP7 might never take off because Microsoft created an anti-developer platform. They hate developers. I'm skipping. 

the $99 fee has stopped me from writing a WP7 app. And I still do not understand why a Windows Mobile like OS and  the .NET framework is not available for any phone that can run Android.

@AndyC: But the iPhone is proven, failure is based on your product solely, WP7 has the external factor of you hoping the platform ignites an already saturated market. It is quite possible that you have a brilliant app on WP7, but uptake is slow, so you move on

Does any niner actually know anyone that that has made a million on any platform? What most people are failing to realise that it is now enterprise level companies investing in these types of applications, (its small change for big companies for the ROI) so the hobbyist is becoming less and less of an entity that makes millions from mobile phone applications.

Personally, if I want to make a software product for general consumption, I want the highest return on my investment. I am being as prudent as Microsoft is with its products.

@cbae: I sometimes wonder at your reasoning, possibly at your business model of relinquishing all or the most control to someone else, and paying them a fee. I think you will always be a great developer, but you will always work for someone else, thinking like that, its only when you are exposed to non-Apple or non-Microsoft setups where you realise why people take the decisions they do. You will make someone else very wealthy.

34 minutes ago, vesuvius wrote

@cbae: I sometimes wonder at your reasoning, possibly at your business model of relinquishing all or the most control to someone else, and paying them a fee. I think you will always be a great developer, but you will always work for someone else, thinking like that, its only when you are exposed to non-Apple or non-Microsoft setups where you realise why people take the decisions they do. You will make someone very wealthy.

If you want to call leveraging the expertise of others so that I can focus my efforts on the domain-specific "relinquishing all or the most control to someone else", then I'm fine with relinquishing all or most control to someone else.

There's a reason that I don't grow my own food in my backyard. I don't have the time nor the inclination to do so. I buy my vegetables from the mega-food market, and if the goods don't taste all that great, I can go to a farmer's market. In either case, I'm not going to waste my time learning how to grow the vegetables myself just to save a few bucks per week. In the long run, my time is worth more than the cost of the vegetables.

@cbae: If I had as much space as you Americans do, I would grow my own veg. It's not very hard to put a few seeds in the ground, and pour some water on the produce every few days, and get rid of some slugs. It beats watching television after work every day. It does wonders for the mind and the spirit, and ultimately the body being self sufficient, when you are sat on your arse 7 to 10 hours a day. It is a lifestyle choice ultimately

Went to Wal-Mart and Target and was looking at phones.  One thing Microsoft and their partners may look at is tapping the prepaid market.  StraightTalk from Walmart and Net10 have Android smartphones that require you to get their 30 day unlimited plan.  A lot of people on these types of plans want smartphones and the price range is pretty reasonable and it would give Microsoft some room to greow and get their foot in the door.  At Wal-Mart I played with a Windows Phone 7 and it was very cool and the learning curve was minimal.  But, I may just get a Iphone 4S.  It seems like the no regrets choice.

God bless.

I've just gone from PAYG (pre-paid) to contract - O2 PAYG was costing me around £15 a month (with 500MB data), but Hutchinson 3G contract was only £10 month with 1GB data (perfect for my shiny new iPhone 4S).

(My iPad contract is £7.50 a month with 1GB/month, btw).

Given a contract like that is there any point to PAYG thesedays, especially as PAYG often only includes data for the month you top-up in (with a specified minimum).

@blowdart: Or you have bad credit, or you play away from home and you don't want your wife to know (dispicable, but that is commerce)

@vesuvius: Or you are seriously budgeting and need to know exactly how much you are spending each month with no surprises of you go over some limit.

Herbie