Seriously? This is a valid reason to buy the new iPhone?

Well, yeah, it is.  Because it outlines the simple decision that most existing iPhone 3/3Gs customers are going to come up against when their contract is up.  (Or right now, for most people, since AT&T has been “nice” enough to move up contract dates to make them eligible early).

That decision is, “shiny new toy” vs “continued and consistently horrible AT&T service”.

Well, what’s in the “shiny new toy”?

• Retina display.   Fine.  The display will be amazing.  But when looking at a device in daily use, does the resolution of your email really matter that much? Or while browsing a website?
• Second front-facing camera.  Sure, this will reduce the number of awkward arms-lengths self-portaits, but again, is this really going to revolutionize the way we take pictures?
• iMovie? Oh, wait, that’s an app.  And, great, for the few people who’d actually do mobile video editing on the fly, go for it.
• Battery Life? File I’ll believe it when I see it.  No phone used as hard as the iPhone will be over two-years will retain this battery life for long.
• iOS 4.  Also available free upgrade to iPhone 3G/GS.  Next.
• Video? Improved, but already exists in 3G.  
• Facetime? Sure, it’s cool.  Who’s likely to use this on a regular basis?
• iBookStore? Works just fine on 3G/3GS.
• Multitasking? Well, it’s not true multitasking, and it’s benefits are minimal at best to this audience. Is it really that much better on an iPhone? This makes a lot more sense on the iPad.
• Slim design? Great. So now all of the cases I have won’t work anymore. 

Most importantly, what doesn’t change could be the dealbreaker for most, and frankly, if it changes, could make me eat my hat in 6 months time because things I’m judging as “nice-to-haves” now ecome “bonus features” in context of one key change:

• AT&T service - let’s face it, folks, they’ve failed to deliver a product worthy of therir contract for the entire duration of my relationship with them.  I remember the first few weeks after I got my iPhone 3G, the 3G was absolutely unusable.  Anywhere.  To the point that I came within days of returning the phone.  Their solution was to give me and my fiance 6 iPhones between us.
• But, it’ll get better, right? Has it gotten better? Maybe a little? But they just don’t have the ability to keep up with demands.  Calls are still regularly, dropped, dead spots are still everywhere (including, apparently, most of the NY Times’ campus in Manhattan).
• But I don’t use it to make phone calls.  Their draconian solution to their data problem is - “let’s confuse our customers by making them pick from data usage buckets that they don’t and can’t possibly understand”.   Even in the early days of the Internet, ISPs moderated their monthly usage by “number of hours”.  Even text message plans can be more easily measured (though, people often blow through those limits as well). Granted, the consumption model is different for data, but, that’s sort of the point? How can you possibly know how much data is used on downloading a Google Map? Or the size of an image, or how much your Twitter app uses? And even 1k of extra data over the limit costs you another $10.

So, I am voting no on the iPhone, for the first time, since, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of frustration to continue on AT&T’s network any longer.  Would it be cool? Sure.  Is it a better experience than any other cellphone? Absolutely.  But for now, I’ll try a non-iPhone Verizon phone, and enjoy the ability to actually use my phone when I want to, and not having to go duck for a Wi-Fi hotspot, and I’ll happily play with my iPad when I need the App Store and to have that Apple engineered experience..

..at least until they bring it to Verizon.