3G iPhone: will it be my next?

The Samsung SGH-i600 is an unusual gadget. In a sense that it has been so long in service (since April 2007). Of course I have been trying to find some replacement or upgrade for it... but I could not find anything worth attention. The only recommended upgrade was the shift from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6, while all potential competition was either lacking a good qwerty keyboard or 3G/HSDPA (iPhone 1.0) or was too bulky (Nokia N95) or did not have a simple push email interface (Blackberry) based on Microsoft Exchange we use for business emails. I even tried to use the Samsung as a portable music player, but unfortunately Windows Media is too complicated.

My entire music collection is based on playlists I compose myself. CD albums, since the introduction of the optical disc technology in early 1980s, contain a lot of crap music. The reason is they can store 70-80 minutes of music. This is twice as much as it used to be in the ear of vinyl LP records. And it is virtually impossible for musicians to produce 80 minutes of really good music a year. And the market expects them to release at least one album a year. And CD can't be just half - full, so they fill them with some crap that would never made it to the public. On average there are 2-3 excellent tracks per CD, another 2-3 good ones and 6 poor. That is why I almost never play entire albums. I buy albums (because I like having the jewel boxes on shelves), rip them to MP3s (yeah, I know it is considered against the law) and then use playlists to combine the best tracks together. Conceptually playlists are metadata. Or data (my preferences) describing other data (music files). iPod and iTunes are built around the metadata concept - playlists and ratings. I put a lot of effort into creating this metadata. That is by the way why I use the Squeezeboxes with the Squeeze Center server software to organize my home music system. Because the Squeeze Center software can read playlists prepared in iTunes and synchronized with iPods. This way I have the same, unified music experience both on the road (iPod) and at home (Squeezeboxes).

Hardware - wise, the Samsung i600 is a very capable music player. Unfortunately it does not have a quick and easy way to integrate the playlists metadata with iTunes. So despite the good integrated music hardware, I ended up carrying an iPod Nano with me all the time. And that is why the iPhone was always tempting... Get rid of just another device... and have a good phone that handles music the way I like. But iPhone 1.0 was just lacking so many other functions. Qwerty keyboard to name it (although many people claim the virtual keyboard on iPhone is not that bad...) and Microsoft Exchange Active Sync (including push email) - this feature is an absolute must for me, as I rely on full syncing of entire business calendar and contact list with my Exchange / Outlook. So imagine my excitement when I learned Apple licensed the ActiveSync protocol from Microsoft. This means the 2.0 iPhone will handle Exchange emails (and contacts / calendars too...) (at least in theory and this is my hope). And it will handle music playlists the way I like. And it will be 3G, with all the video calling goodies... And will be less bulky than the 1.0 version... So... will it be my next smartphone? Cannot tell you for sure, but I am ready to at least try one... Hope the virtual keyboard will be good enough... Steve Jobs... keep your fingers crossed :)