Iphone or Winmo 6.1, and what's your back-end, dude? Xserve or W2K3?

I've got a HTC touch HD in my hand. It's nice and sleek. I love it. Off-course I love Iphone too, which I don't have. I've got a macbook that makes it kinda cool to have an iPhone in company. For me it is kinda hard to decide to buy or not to buy my self an iPhone. Why? I'll tell you my story.

Back in Y2K, i've heard about this dream that Apple was gonna throw out an apple phone. That would be a killer. Cell phone business was huge, but it looked like it needed the "touch of Midas". Looking back to the history of computer and music, sure Steve Jobs was gonna do it again. This time the cell phone. And he did it.

iPhone was and is fancy.

But we all know that phone is not just a talking box. That's not what iPhone is meant to be, that's not any cell phone is meant to be. Like right now, cell phone is an extension of computer evolution. From mainframe to PC to cell phone. Apple put together the mobile evolution chains right.

Now, year 2009 is gonna be an interesting year. All phones will be iPhone-like phones. Check out Blackberry storm or check out all mobile phone operating systems. Be it Microsoft Mobile, Android, or Symbian, they are now quite alike. Apple has bent the mobile phone into an integration with computer world. All come along.

But the questions are, to me, still about function. Supposed you have an Microsoft Exchange server in your back-end, do you really still need a Blackberry to live? should it be a common windows-mobile-with-outlook phone be alright? I am sure so. Actually if you have a mail server with IMAP4 or IMAP-IDLE capability any phone with IMAP should be ok. They still push mails, don't they?

Good articles explaining the back-ends thingy of those gadgets at http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/685B09D3-950B-4B23-8B1F-A56D448F7208.html

What I see in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta and Bandung, is quite funny that most people fall for Blackberry eventhough they only use voice and sms just like what they do with entry-level phones. It is about coolness, not function. Why not iPhone instead? because iPhone is just too America centric, too far away. iPhone is not as cool as Blackberry for "non-computer" people. This mostly girls and young middle-class people using Blackberry don't really know Apple and its pioneering habits in techs and gadgets. They know Blackberry better with the campaign they've been doing.

That logic above is quite explaining that many people like myself as well have this wish for an iPhone. I don't even have an Xserve server. I have an Exchange2003 in my back instead. I think Steve Jobs knows that too, that's why he put compatibility between iPhone and Exchange and any IMAP4 (iPhone supports IMAP-IDLE too). Hypotetically, supporting IMAP-IDLE means supporting good email synchronization. Hypothetical because I haven't seen such as good sync with IMAP-whatever-version-that-is. I am sure if you have a winmo version 5 or up, you have tried to sync mail using IMAP, and I bet you failed to sync the "sent items" folder. There might be options like "copy sent items folders" and "choose folder to sync", but they just don't work.

I dont have an apple's Xserve server. Still I'm gonna buy myself an iPhone. Maybe.

Now, what do you wanna do with the device of yours?