"Todd H." <t@toddh.net> wrote in message
news:84iqyrexlm@news.giganews.com...

> I can't believe the iPhone has been this successful without it thus
> far, honestly. Once it gets it, bar the door I think. I'd have
> gotten one if iPhone had 3G at the time, but alas, I sit with the
> functional but clunky AT&T tilt.

I think the iPhone sells to a different market. For many it's a combo
iPod/phone- the web access is just a "bonus." Besides, EDGE is just fine
for e-mail, and frankly it's fine for browsing on "dumbphones" since they're
generally pulling small mobile-formatted webpages. It's the "real browser"
that's both the iPhone blessing and curse- it's beautiful, but requires more
bandwidth to pull "real" pages than a Nokia candy-bar phone's WAP/XHTML
browser does.

However, I think it's a non-issue for many folks- there's a significant
number of people (and I'm NOT one of them!) that just doesn't want to fool
with the web on a 3-4" screen. My wife is one- no matter how fast the
connection is, or how quickly the screen renders, she'd rather wait until
she's in front of a large display to surf the web, but she's addicted to
mobile e-mail. (Unfortunately for Apple she's also addicted to QWERTY
thumbboards, so she refused my offer to jump to an unlocked iPhone from her
T-Mobile Dash, a "Blackberry-style" WM Smartphone.)

Also, the future of the mobile web, IMHO, is more in internet-powered apps
than browsing- I find myself using Windows Live Search , for example, rather
than Internet Explorer for things like movie listings and "411" lookups- WLS
makes it easier finding "nearby" info than futzing with pulling up a
webpage, and entering a bunch of required info (city, state, zip, etc.)
before even telling it what I'm looking for.

I'm envious of your Tilt, but, alas, it's 3G is incompatible with T-Mo's
upcoming non-standard 1700MHz implementation. My old MDA/HTC Wizard (also
functional but clunky!) continues to serve me well until something 3G (and
hopefully thinner/less clunky!) comes along. I'd miss far too much WinMo
functionality downgrading to an iPhone in it's current state, but who knows
what June and "2.0" will bring...