I was very late to the smart phone party. Partly because I didn’t think I really needed a computer phone and partly because I just couldn’t afford the data plan. After all, I barely even used the phone I had. For years, my cell phone was nothing more than an insurance policy for my long commutes. When you live in a desert, a phone could save your life if your car stranded you in the middle of summer.
Several things happened in the last few months that lead to me upgrading from a simple cell phone to a Droid. First, my simple phone simply died. The microphone gave out and so I had to use a wire mic to talk on it. With Baseball season getting under way and both my sons on teams and me helping to coach one of them, I needed a phone that worked. Also, my contract with Verizon was up for renewal so there was added incentive to upgrade.
The second thing that happened was that my SF novel started bringing in some decent cash on a monthly basis. Free money from Amazon, meant that I could easily afford the extra thirty dollars a month for a data plan.
The third thing that lead to my deciding to get the Droid and not to switch over to AT&T and go with an iPhone, was the maturing of Google’s Open Source phone Operating System – Android. I had been following the development of Android and knew that philosophically, I could never buy any computer that was not open again.
Those who know me personally, know that I’m a huge Linux fan. I have been for years now. I tossed out Windows at my house a long time ago. I now own two Linux computers and one Macbook. When the finances allow for it, the Macbook will become the family computer and I will get an Ubuntu notebook. Eventually, when the Macbook becomes unusable, it will get replaced by a Linux notebook or whatever is in vogue at the time. My current Linux desktop is already to that point when even Linux distros barely run on it. I may have to put Puppy Linux on it or something to keep it alive any longer.
I went with the Droid, because at the time I was buying, it was the best Android phone on Verizon. I really wanted the Google Nexus One, but we all know that is still not available as of this posting.
Next post I will talk about living with the Droid phone for the past couple of weeks.