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After nearly 3 months I finally made up my mind: I'm getting a new smartphone. Why the long wait? Well, having purchased two Windows Mobile powered phones which totally let me down I just had enough; however, I wouldn't simply go for the most obvious and popular choice - buying an iPhone - and here's why.

I should mention that I own an iPod Touch (2nd generation). I seriously considered the iPhone as a potential candidate so I thought I would give it a try to avoid being bound to a mobile operator for 18 months. After all an iPod Touch works just like an iPhone with the only significant difference being the inability to make phone calls and send text messages. Plus, no GPS, no camera, no microphone: I don't own a car so I don't really need a GPS-enabled device; I've heard that the built-in iPhone's camera is of poor quality plus I rarely take pictures; I guess the microphone would be pretty useless without GSM capabilities. Having said that, I do enjoy all features of my iPod: Safari is a much better internet browser compared to Opera mobile; I can check both my GMail and MS Exchange accounts; I can listen to my favourite music; I can watch videos, even YouTube ones; I can install a gazillion of apps, all I need to do is to browse the vast online app store. This sounds great, but there are a few trade-offs.
Firstly, the lack of a physical keyboard was probably the first ever missing feature mentioned by most iPhone users. This was partially diminished following the release of version 3 of the operating system: it now fully expands horizontally so that buttons are larger and easier to tap. However, I do still make a few mistakes every now and then and as I can type very quickly on a real keyboard I just can't type as fast making it a rather frustrating experience at times.
Secondly, the lack of multitasking really lets me down: every time I started one of the downloaded apps I had to wait until the app is fully loaded. This doesn't happen with built-in apps such as Safari, the mail client, the media player: switching between them is fast enough but I still get the impression that the device doesn't offer any real multitasking; it's just being smart by "remembering" the last opened email or the last visited web pages.
Thirdly, the price of an iPhone 3G S is a show-stopper, at least for me. Even if you get it with a pay monthly deal it is still massively expensive. I paid about £130 for a brand new iPod Touch from the UK online Apple store and I think it is good value for money. I already spent some £30 on apps overall over the past 6 months. The vast majority of that money was spent to buy games. Gaming on these devices probably deserves a dedicated story as by looking at the sale figures you realize how successful gaming is: independent developers earn a lot of money, more and more individuals and company are producing games at a very fast pace. Casual gamers probably love the sort of games available on the app store but serious gamers should not waste their money on thos. Yes, using the accelerometer and shaking the device is very impressive but the excitement didn't last long, it was soon replaced with frustration. Yes, the average price for those games is relatively low, especially if compared to Sony's PlayStation Store, so what? The longevity of most games is poor anyway. However, someone may argue that there are a lot of great apps but I'm not convinced they are they really useful. I'm a web developer so I thought of purchasing a console terminal to connect to my virtual private server which runs a Linux distro. Fortunately I tried the free version first: it was one of the most daunting experiences ever. Again, the lack of keyboard and the small screen make the app utterly useless. I am sure there are better examples that could prove me wrong but I still think that £900 for a sim-free iPhone is way too much if you look at what it actually offers. Even pay monthly deals don't look appealing as not only would I be bound to a carrier for no less than 18 months but I would still need to pay a significant amount of money to ultimately get the device.
Fourthly, lack of Flash applications and video streaming support made me wonder for a minute why I even bought the device. No offence, but frankly this is just plain stupid. Even more stupid is Apple's explanation for this critical missing feature.
So now, it's time to reveal which smartphone I purchased. To be precise, I am still awaiting on Expansys UK to process my order. After reading several negative reviews about Expansys I wasn't convinced it would be a good idea to purchase my new phone through them. However, they are the only store which actually sells the relatively new Motorola Milestone. Known in the US as Droid, this is probably one of the most long-lasting solution to all my mobile computing needs. It sports the most recent (2.0) version of the Android operating system; currently all other Android phones run the previous version (1.6) of the OS. I haven't had the chance to do a proper test-run on an Android phone but I only needed a few minutes in store as they were kind enough to let me play with an HTC Magic. No physical keyboard is available on that phone but I didn't really need one to test its features. A colleague at work actually owns one and he just won't stop saying how much he likes both the phone and the OS. Certainly I haven't based my choice on one person's positive experience with an Android phone but did I choose the Milestone also because of its full QUERTY keyboard. Something tells me I will also like my new phone; this will ideally be delivered before Christmas.