What happened to the good old days of buying a mobile phone? (Or, why I've stopped being a Nokia customer)

I remember when I was about 17 walking into Comet with my Mum and Dad and picking up one of the first Orange pay as you go handsets, walk up to the counter, pay for it with some credit for calls/texts then walk out. Job done!

Roll on 12 months and it was simply I want a Nokia 5110 and see which network offered me the most suitable deal in terms of handset price and cost of calls and texts. Sign on the doted line… job done.

I have been a die hard Nokia fan since I got that 5110 and I used to change handsets every 6-8 months by using deals on networks and selling the old ones on Ebay to cover the cost. Its that time of year again when I need (well fancy) a new handset and it seems like there is a 3rd factor to consider now. Operating System.

You will notice I said ‘I have been a die hard Nokia fan’ but I’ve decided to move on because I have lost faith with s60 and every time I buy a new Nokia I get less of that excitement of it’s ‘new features’. It does this, it does that etc. and when it does this and that it usually crashes… I’ve had enough!

I have decided to go for an Android handset as I feel it’s the next logically step. I have had an iPhone for the last 10 months on PAYG as an ipod that does that little bit extra basically but I realised I couldn’t use this as my day to day handset for a number of reasons (which I wont get into now — Ewan’s asked me to do another post on that entirely!).

Having had a look around I see there is the Magic out now which looks good, there is (as reported here) the Samsung i750 and of course the excellent HTC Hero which appears to be the winner for me in handset terms mainly due to HTC’s sense user interface.

Now here is the dilemma… thinking back to my days of being an 18 year old… I have chosen my handset – HTC Hero – time to go and find a good price plan. Wrong! The HTC Hero is only going to be available on Orange and T-mobile so I am automatically limited more so by the fact neither of those networks can provide a signal in my South West London flat. It’s 2009… I’m not going to stand outside my flat to send a text!

So no Hero for me!

HTC magic… by the sounds of it a great handset and is available on a good price plan via Vodafone but I feel I would be buying an outdated handset due to the new devices coming out shortly. This is a shame as despite no Voda 3G coverage in my flat I can pick up the old 2.5G coverage and I would like to move to them for increased mobile web speed and reliability when on the move.

So basically I am left with no choice but to wait for the Samsung i750 despite it not being my preferred handset. I also have to hope o2 offer a competitive tariff with the handset. As we have seen from the iPhone they like to offer specific costs to specific handsets.

So here I am in 2009 in an established mobile industry which I chose to work in since being that 17yr old walking into Comet. When I ‘upgrade’ I will have my 2nd choice handset on my 2nd choice of network (despite the signal problem Orange and T-mobile must be 3rd/4th most popular MNOs in the country for a reason) and a 2nd rate version of the Android OS (From what I have read there is no ‘HTC sense’ equivalent).

Second best all round!

I fully blame Apple for this new form of handset and network partnership and understand on a business level why the Mobile Networks and Handset Manufacturers are doing this now but as a consumer I should be able to choose the handset I want and the network I want.