to quote a friend who works for O2.  "There are no deals on the iPhone"

You cant sync the phone between different computers if youre trying to sync up music and the like, or itll wipe all the media.  Known issue, and apple admit its intended.  

Music Know but this an itunes issue and it is not alone in this and other related sync issues in terms of mobile phones.

HTC have never stopped making and selling phones with keyboards, but they havent been huge sellers.  Either because they were badly executed (X1, Nexus 1), or being sold as branded handsets through Network operators (XDA/MDA/SPV).  As a brand HTC had issues with market penetration, and now they have that they can go back to adding keyboards to phones.  Plus the old HTC phones are ugly, I know this, ive had a couple.  Great feature set, great ergonomics, poor look.  

There are HTC phones without keyboards. The Nexus One is made by them and has no keyboard as one example which you think does.
You contridict yourself a little here though.
HTC have never stopped making phones with keyboards but did not have market penetration but now they do they have gone back to adding keyboards to phones? Does not make sense.
Every Old phone is ugly!
Every old phone did not have the features that it should have!
That is my point. People who select moan the iphone about that point are just doing so because it is the iphone. It applies to just about every phone out there.

HTC again didnt build that for themselves, they did it to a design brief.  Network operators want to limit your use of the phone features due to costs.  If youve got a full multimedia handset with 3G and WiFi they dont really want to you using up all of your minutes, texts and data plan.  The less you use, the more they make out of you.  Thats why network branded handsets often have features missing compared to the same handset with the manufacturers own brand.  

I heard differently since they basically brought out that phone branded as HTC and before nexus one came about there had been leaks of the phone as a HTC phone. Google asked for tweaked difference not a specific build. Nexus Two is supposed to be that "from scratch" build.

My Wife is a prime example of a non-tech user.  Shes been on a 3G for 18 months, and her main reason for wanting one in the 1st place is "Its pretty".  it took her a couple of months to work out the apps even as she refused any help setting it up!  Ive just ordered her upgrade from that, and shes opted for a HTC HD2.  Because its not going to piss her off, the camera isnt sh*t, and she doesnt have to use iTunes on windows.  I had NO input to her choice beyond driving her up to Carphone Warehouse and pointing her at the smartphones.  

HD2 is a good phone, A number of people can rip that for a few things as well.

Android wise I would recommend  is the Droid which is a great phone but people will have issues with that too.

I still love the Palm Pre, badly marketed and not quite there but I love webOS! Love the phone but you can diss that on number of things.
Now HP own Palm hopefully the latter phones start to deliver.

Point is the mobile phone industry is crammed with phones. ALL have good points and ALL have bad points and each company is trying to improve on their features all the time.

For ANYONE to do like you did with the moan editing is pointless in my opinion it is just an attack on the phone because "its apple" and you could have done what you have done with any phone out there.

Next iphone wont be perfect, nor will the next HTC but they will always be an improvement.

As to deals, I was meaning for the Desire or something. Still not totally made up. Im looking at the iPhone as the "safe" choice, whilst an android would be a bit of a gamble but potentially so much better, and cant decide whether its worth the risk!

quite a few lads at work have been waiting for, and have got the Desire.   They seem to like them so far.  

Whats the build quality like? Im guessing it wont be anywhere near as bad as the X1, where you feel like its going to break at the drop of a hat.

They seem fairly solid, and they "fit" in your hand nicely.  If you want to have a play around with one go to a CPW store, they should have them out on display as they are SERIOUSLY pushing them at the moment!  The only thing I found confusing was the optical trackpad was a little sensitive, but that was probably more down the guy whos phone it was rather than hard settings.  He used to have a blackberry I couldnt use either!

to quote a friend who works for O2.  "There are no deals on the iPhone"

my friend got a good deal from 3 for an iphone.. better deal than they offered me + the one I ended up moving to o2 for.

cant remember the specifics, but he got 600min,  free calls & videocalls to his wife mobile, unlimited texts & mulimedia messages, etc.

Ive always found it a little odd how Id have thought Im an ideal customer, paying for a contract whilst barely using their service, so theyre getting money for nothing, compared to those paying for the really expensive contracts, but actually using the service and putting a load on it...

yup, was a customer with 3 for over 6 years.. i waited & waited for the n96 release & was promised Id be given a special deal.. release date came ( had it a day early) & got my phone...
week later my mate who never was with 3 had exactly the same deal. - Only good thing was mine was unbranded & unlocked! 3 reception has gone sh*t in this area since they moved from o2
to orange.

Music Know but this an itunes issue and it is not alone in this and other related sync issues in terms of mobile phones.
Windows mobile has no issues with it, and you can sync up multiple handset with the same computer, without having the same contact lists etc on the different handsets.  Blackberry also suffers from the single Outlook profile/contact list issue, and it annoys me sometimes, but Ive had to work round it.  

Windows 7 will introduce issues & Android has them as well in a manner. So to moan at one as you did was more then a dig then anything else hey

Sorry, was thinking the G1.  Its a horrible handset.  

They are making so many at the moment, but overall I think in terms of average they are making the best phones at the moment. Dell has some coming though that actually look rather good.

I mean that they can start putting keyboards back on the phones that are aimed at the mass market, rather than the business phones.  

Ok, but there are business phones I have seen in that section of the phone store that do not have keyboards

Well disagree there.  Nokia have produced some handset that are still good looking by todays standards.  

It was a quote from a certain well known CEO of a phone company

Yes, but in the high-end handset market they didnt just decide to leave features out for the sake of it.  MMS when the iPhone came out?  Bluetooth even now being restricted, no mass storage mode?  These arent "features" on a high-end handset, they are BASIC FUNCTIONS.  

Mass Storage mode - does everyone need it? Apple consider not and looking at the sales globally most people would agree with that and not all phones have this and open bluetooth for that matter too. Windows mobile 7 will also introduce more restrictions for battery power.
It is not the phone at fault for these though, just software.
Is every new OS perfect on launch for that matter? They are always evolving, if you took the first winMo to todays standards it is not there.

I would rather see a good stable OS rather then trying to cram everything in. I love webOS but that is not perfect by a long shot and had some key features it should have from the start.

Apple put MMS on the phones but they not to long ago released figures via AT&T in the US and showed hardly anyone actually uses it, most still just email it out.

Hardly, youll find a fair few iPhone users who are now looking elsewhere.  Also youll find people like me who have given them SERIOUS consideration in the past, but have decided that the restrictions and locking down are far too much of a deterrent to getting one.  I also dislike intensely being told that to keep my warranty i can ONLY install what someone else tells me.

People switch phones all the time when they have used them over time because they do not like how they work. NO phone is perfect and there is so many out there you pick the one that YOU like the look of and does what YOU would like.
So everyone is entitled to their opinion but yours was more of a general dig where it was not due.

It was designed for Google according to even the HTC rep I was being trained by a few weeks back.  I assume he knows his own products.  

They went out and had meetings and picked the Desire for the base and asked for features and HTC built it. Video interviews on youtube with google. I will try to find it.
The conversation of "We do not know how to build a phone so we went to the experts"
- They are a startup in terms of mobile phones (ignoring the OS) and went to the people in the know. The turn around of its development also shows it was not a "from scratch" Product.

Do not get me wrong, it is their phone and basically a Flop, but it was not designed by google, it was speced by google and I am sure asked if certain things could be tweaked.

Yeah, its got a battery life like the iPhone, and its not fully multi-touch.  

Head to head its worse and I actually hate the width, but thats my thing. The iphone is just on my limit and I like the new design.

I played with one, nice phone, production finish isnt a patch on the Desire though.

Depends where you are it seems, some bad batches of the Desire though.

Palm/HP is going to be interesting, HP have pretty much bottomless pockets for development.  

Apparently the next line up palm was working on is still going to come out but I am sure they will merge with HP and later phones designed for them. WebOS will go on multiple HP mobile products.
Their new tablet is nice (slate) but now they are showing more they will have to admit windows 7 makes it CHUG along and they cant fix that.
WebOS on their slates - All new ball game.

No sh*t, Im the one WORKING WITH THESE HANDSETS ON A DAILY BASIS.  This would suggest Ive got a little more experience with them that someone who has just read up on them.  I play with them in my hand, and I read up on whats coming soon and existing problems with them.
.

Why what you did then is worse then an average Joe doing it. Was not a dig at an apple product for the sake of it, come on admit it
Do not really care but we all know it was.

Shows how wrong you can be.  Ive recommended the iPhone to various people in the past because its more suitable for them than anything else.  I personally think Apple products are by large overpriced.  Also posting a "moan edit" in reply to a "moan edit" isnt exactly going to improve your case.  

Hehe, then that is exactly what you did A dig for the sake of it and nothing more. If you do this then you very well know all this, you just did the dig because you have an issue with apple as a whole, and you just said so ^^