Macenstein first alerted me that it won’t really be Cingular that the Apple iPhone will work on, but AT&T which is on my personal do not do business list:

According to The New York Times, on December 29th, AT&T (which had owned 60% of Cingular) gained sole ownership of Cingular when it acquired BellSouth (which owned the remaining 40%). The de-branding/re-branding effort is slated to begin this month, and by June (coincidentally when the iPhone is scheduled to ship) the transition will be complete.

For those who like AT&T this will be good news, for those who don’t, this is yet one more reason not to buy the iPhone. My ‘do not do business with’ list isn’t of the when hell freezes over variety, but I remain pretty disgusted with how AT&T treated our business long distance service pricing. Disgusted enough that’s it now more like a when the Bahamas completely freeze over feeling.

Guess that means I’ll be reading from others how cool the Apple iPhone is/isn’t from others this coming June. Blockbuster and Dell are also on my list. The former because of bad customer service and no reply from corporate office and the latter because of lousy lease agreements and inferior customer service.

Do you crave something else from your phone than, well, just a phone?
Paul O’Flaherty wonders when was the last time a phone was marketed as a phone?:

I noticed that not one of the phones on offer was being sold on the merits of it being a “good phone”. They were all being pitched on their ability to play mp3’s, show video, listen to radio or the megapixel count of their inbuilt digital camera’s.

Everybody wants to be the one gadget we carry around. Thing is, that one gadget is only a dream not something in theory yet. If you like music, you’ll probably gravitate toward an iPod. If you want to keep track of lots of web passwords and addresses and sync with a desktop program a Pocket PC works good. Most of the smartphones I’ve seen are awkward to hold as a phone, but they could also fit that niche. Want to play a game? PSP or Nintendo DS.

You see, nobody has the swiss army knife of portable devices because depending on what you like to do, there is a different gadget that is the best for that purpose.

When I want to talk on the phone the thing I’m most interested in is ease of phone-related operations and call quality. Can I hear the other person? Can they hear me? Will it remember enough phone numbers (used to be a huge issue with phones, but getting better as memory expands). I’m with Paul when it comes to phones: simple, straightfoward and specific works better for me. I’m not going to carry something gaudy around like a Simpsons phone but I don’t begrudge other fans.

Do you want phones that can do a bunch more than be a phone? Are you in search of the ultimate swiss army gadget? Have you found it and I’m overlooking it? I’m all eyes and ears in the comments/trackback area below.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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• Apple announces iPhone deal with Cingular and iTV
• The Not Buying iPhone Club
• Apple stock reaches all time high in anticipation of iPhone
• Customer loyalty vs. new customer acquisition
• AT&T adds more VoIP service to business customers
• Cell Phone explosions