I was one of the guys that waited in line in June of 2007 to get the original iPhone. I paid an insane $599 for the unit, but to me, it was worth it to be able to experience the revolutionary device as early as possible. Soon after using the iPhone, I went back to Windows Mobile: I needed 3G (remember, the first iPhone was EDGE only), I needed full Exchange support, and I hated the idea of having to go back to the home screen to switch applications.

Two years later, and many phones later, I’m back to the iPhone, this time with the 3G S. Things look and feel different than they did back in 2007. In this short article, I’ll take you through my journey back to the iPhone and give you some insights from the perspective of a Windows Mobile user.

I should preface this article by saying that just like you, I really have no devotion to any mobile phone platform. In the end, I want the best phone for me. It just so happens that I view Windows Mobile as my platform of choice because it does exactly what I want: it can multi-task like a champ, it’s available in a dozen form factors, it has second-to-none Exchange integration, and it is highly tweakable.

Out of the box…

It seems that starting with the iPhone 3G, Apple cut down on the amount of packaging. Why does a phone need a lot of packaging? It doesn’t (are you listening, HTC?).

I remember the activation process for the original iPhone being a horrendous experience. Because of AT&T issues, the phone took over 12 hours to activate. The iPhone 3G S, after being connected to iTunes, was activated in under a minute. Awesome.

Unlike Windows Mobile, the iPhone doesn’t require you to align the screen or go through a tutorial on how to create appointments. Instead, you are dumped right into the interface after the phone is activated.

Hardware…

The iPhone 3G S looks and feels the same as the iPhone 3G, which in turn looks about the same as the original iPhone.

The design really hasn’t changed, which makes the iPhone look dated. I remember in 2007 I’d catch people staring at the phone with curious eyes. The iPhone was a beauty! It was essentially a slab with a huge screen, the likes of which have never been seen in the mobile phone world.

Today, the iPhone no longer has a unique design. Devices like the HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Diamond2, HTC Hero, Palm Pre, and many others have a similar sleek appearance.

The Apps…

Wow…wow…wow. When Apple says “there’s an app for that”, they aren’t trying to be clever. There is literally an app for just about everything. I’ve poked around in the app store about ten months ago when I upgraded the ROM on the original iPhone, and since then, the number of apps has exploded.

After spending a few hours with the app store of June 2009, here is what I’ve done:

I got an app to check my bank balance.

I got an app to connect to my stock trading account.

I got an app to allow me to read all of my Kindle books.

I got an app to remotely control my VUDU video player.

I got an app to Twitter.

I got an app to track the traffic statistics across multiple websites that I monitor.

I got an app to read the Wall Street Journal.

And the list goes on and on. The app store is the killer feature of the iPhone. But here is the clincher: this killer feature is easily replicated and will soon be a big selling point on WebOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.

Sure, these competing platforms won’t have robust application catalogs next week, or even in a few months, but if any of the said platforms can achieve ubiquity AND have a compelling app distribution system, the developers will come, the apps will come, more devices will be sold, and soon you have another fantastic app store.

What’s missing…

The iPhone’s icon-based interface is mostly unchanged from version 1.0 of the ROM. Sure you can have multiple panels of icons and any icon can be moved around, but these aren’t huge changes.

I STILL can’t better organize my many pages of icons into categories (how about some folders?). I’ve seen people with eight panels full of icons. It’s ridiculous! How do you find the app you want among among a sea of dozens?

And, why can’t I have more than four items on the dock? I used more than four apps on a regular basis.

In addition, I STILL can’t check my next appointment at a quick glance. I STILL need to unlock the phone to see any sort of useful information (except for missed calls and missed SMS).

But this is not the case with Windows Mobile. Even if we go back to the original Windows Mobile Today screen, we have a super useful page that gives us, in one glance, lots of information. Out of the box you can view calendar info, tasks, messaging, and others, but with third-party plugins, you can add items like real-time weather and stock quotes.

Interfaces like Spb Mobile Shell have taken the concept of a Today screen and extended it to be more visually attractive and customizable. Mobile Shell, in my opinion, is the ultimate interface for a mobile device: it provides quick-glance information such as next appointment, weather, tasks, shortcuts to frequently used device functions, and so on.

Speed…

The latest iPhone’s claim to fame is its speed. And yes, it’s faster compared to the 3G and especially the original. But even with that, I still need to go Home in order to open another application quickly, which takes time. Multitasking on the iPhone still totally sucks. In Windows Mobile, jumping from email to calendar and back to email is several times faster than it is in iPhone. Every second counts.

And web browsing is very smooth and fast on the 3G S, but hey, Apple, where is Flash support? Having Flash support is absolutely critical, and the iPhone STILL lacks it.

Universal Search…

The new universal search is accessible by swiping to the left on the first panel of icons, or by tapping the little search icon above the dock.

The search lets you find programs, emails, and contacts in Mac spotlight-like fashion. But I’d like to see the ability to also search a website like Google from this screen. Windows Mobile lacks an elegant device-wide search function.

In Conclusion…

Even the iPhone devotees among you will probably agree with the following: the iPhone interface is stale, and so is the design of the hardware. It hasn’t changed much since 2007.

But it’s all about the apps. Even though I’m able to do just about everything with my Touch Pro2 that I can do on the iPhone, it requires more steps. Having a stand alone app to check my bank balance is faster than opening a web browser on a Touch Pro2, logging in, and clicking around.

In my journey back to the iPhone, I’ve learned something: a cell phone platform can have a huge market share only if there is a significant barrier to entry. For the iPhone in 2007, it was the entire package: the sweet hardware with multitouch, the easy of use, the elegance, the beauty. This barrier was erased especially in 2008 when we began to see other beautiful devices comes to market with multitouch, elegant interfaces, and the like.

Now in 2009, the barrier to entry to the iPhone’s dominance in smartphone marketshare is the app store. It is mind boggling how many great apps there are. But that barrier will be erased as other platforms achieve ubiquity and developers pounce. And then it will be up to Apple to do something significant, once again, to create a new barrier. Video chat could have been the barrier, but at WWDC 2009, we saw that that wouldn’t be the case.

What about you? Are you using the latest iPhone? Do you agree with the points made above?