iPhone vs. Treo

I own a Treo 700p. Let’s see how it stacks up against the new iPhone.

(Note I’m talking about stuff that capture my attention. Stuff like Treo’s beaming of business cards and the iPhone’s ambient light sensor are interesting, but don’t factor into my buying decision all that much.)

Treo advantages:

• Treo is available today.

• User replaceable battery.

• Treo comes in both GSM and CDMA flavors.

• In addition to iPhone’s Cingular service provider, Treo adds Sprint and Verizon. You can also get an unlocked GSM version.

• While Jobs denigrated Treo’s “plasticy” keyboard, I was easily able to out-type him when he did his SMS demo. It could be just that I’m fast or he’s slow, but hardware buttons always beat software buttons.

• User replaceable battery.

• I think Apple could make more money by giving away iPhones and charging $1 a pop for fingerprint-erasing screen wipes. Razor, razor blades dude.

• Treo is open to independent developers.

  Perhaps this is not a big deal to the Public At Large, but I personally heavily use five indie apps. Plus, a goodly number of the apps I value on the Treo started out as 3rd party apps that got bought out by Palm (World Clock, Blazer).

  It’s odd: I’m sure Apple recognizes the iPod accessory ecosystem serves to further entrench the ubiquitous music player. Apple now has an opportunity to entrench on the software accessory side as well.

  The iPhone does appear to support Java, so that’s a potential app dev route, if through the web backdoor.

  My guess: Apple will eventually permit ADC-registered developers to request signing of their Dashboard-style Widgets. Once signed by Apple, these Widgets will be able to be uploaded to the iPhone with iTunes (either directly or through the iTunes store). Full-blown Cocoa apps will also be available, but only at much higher partnership levels.

• You can use your Treo as a wireless modem (“tethered mode”). It’s unclear if you can also do this with an iPhone, but until I hear otherwise, I’ll assume you can’t.

• User replaceable battery.

iPhone advantages:

• Sleeker hardware.

• More powerful hardware.

• Much better screen.

• Better software UI.

• Potential for better software robustness. My Treo crashes about once every two months. I don’t lose anything, but iPhone has the potential to stop crashing apps from taking down everything else.

• Wifi.

• It’s an iPod. The two devices I carry (phone+iPod) merge. Now I’m waiting for an iWallet, so I’m down to one item in my pocket. You heard it here first: leather is the new brushed metal.

Other notes:

• How much RAM does the iPhone have? I’m hoping at least 256MB.

• How much space does OS X take of the available 8 GB of flash?

• Apparently you can’t sync over Wifi yet. I’d rant about this, but you can’t really sync a Treo over Bluetooth as well (you can, it’s just fiddly, slow and Not Worth It).

• In general, I get the impression folks ooohing over iPhone haven’t used the current gen Treo. While the iPhone overall seems like a better device, the Treos have a very nice user interface as well.

Update Jan 12: Turns out Java (and Flash) aren’t supported on the iPhone after all. Sorry, I misunderstood what an insider friend was telling me.

A couple of other pro-Treo points hit me yesterday as the iPhone wormed its way into my subconscious:

• Battery life. I guess I didn’t list this as a Treo advantage since I’ve learned to take it for granted. The Treo has rockin’ battery life. I routinely take it up to the red shed for the weekend sans any charger or fear of running out of juice. I mentioned back in my Treo 700p Notes “I now have a second battery, although I don’t know if I care.” I still don’t care, because the first is so studly. Sounds like I’d be living in constant battery-drain fear with an iPhone.

• One-hand operation. I routinely use my Treo with one hand. I didn’t notice this or even think of it as an advantage until David Pogue pointed out it’s hard to use the iPhone with one hand.

At the end of the day, the lack of indie development is the deal-breaker. I have no problem with iPhone’s price (I paid more for both my Treo 650 and 700p because I’m an early-adopter sucker), but thanks to its walled garden, it simply lacks the functionality I require, with no current way to fix that. I’ll be sticking with my Treos + iPod nanos for the foreseeable future (~6 months?). Such a shame.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
12:00 AM