Is the iPhone getting boring?

You know you're not a trend setter when you have the same phone that everyone else (yes, and their dog) has. I saw a pooch walking around with an iPhone the other day. It seems that everyone has an iPhone and the concentration is getting higher by the day. The sheep now have the message and it's become a stampede or whatever runaway sheep do.

Nokia Lumia 900

I've had an iPhone since nearly the time they first came out in 2007. I tried a Blackberry before RIM's huge fall from grace. And I even flirted with Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's Hail Mary attempt to get back into the mobile category.

A former co-worker and friend who now works on Microsoft's mobile team gave me a Samsung Focus about a year ago to try. I put my SIM card in it for awhile and liked a lot of the features, but kept gravitating back to the iPhone. Then I got a new iPhone 4S. Faster and with the Siri gimmick, but otherwise, same old same old.

I've never been one for "going with the flow" even though I'm pretty conservative. All the hype over the new Nokia Lumia 900 has got me fiddling with the Focus again. (I can use it on wireless for email and web access, just not for making phone calls or where there is no WiFi.) It's a nice looking phone that will run on AT&T's new 4G LTE network and has a better camera and probably better display than my Focus. Plus, legendary Nokia quality. Oh, and don't forget the FM radio!

I'm now tempted again to give WP7 a whirl. I've upgraded the operating system to Mango which is definitely faster and fixes some of the shortcomings of the previous OS. The app problem still exists though. There are lots of iPhone apps that I use that aren't available on WP7 and may not be for awhile.

Why would I switch? Well, WP7 is different and pretty cool. It handles email much, much better than the iPhone. In many ways, it seems a lot more integrated that the iPhone. It's as fast if not faster than the iPhone. But, most of all, I could diverge from the flock and maybe be one of the new trend setters!