Why are you buying the Touch Pro?

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I want to know why so many people are up for spending $1000 on a phone? Just wondering. I mean I've asked this before, but I wanted to make a thread. Do you all just earn too much money? Are single? College students? Have cash lying around? I mean I paid $300 for my AT&T tilt and I thought that was a lot.

Kraize

I have not yet bought it, but I may do so soon.
I do not earn huge amounts of money, but i do know how to save up for events like this. I dont spend my money on lots of little stupid things, instead i spend my well earned money less often, but on something very worth while.

Some people spend what seems like little amounts of money every day or week on things like cigarettes, junk food, alcohol, etc. This all adds up.
Or every few months on a cheap phone, cheap electronics, etc.
Whereas i will buy one good expensive phone or other gadget that i have researched well. I.e. average joe buys 100 euro phone, 6 months later, 250 euro phone, 4 months later 200 euro mp3 player, and so on, also spending 100 or so a week on things that id call a waste of money, while i buy one 600 euro phone that'll last me a year or two or three.
Also, these WM smartphones lose their value slowly. The Touch Pro will still sell for a good sum in a few months even second hand. The TyTn II still goes for about 300 on ebay. I buy the Touch Pro now for 600, in a year I sell the Touch Pro for 400 say, and buy another 600 euro phone. In 12 months I've spent 400 euro in total while owning the latest and greatest.

I've been a smartphone user for years. I still have a Audiovox SMT5600, that I'd still probably be using if it weren't for the fact that it's only tri-band GSM and I took a job in Scotland, and my company SIM is now Vodaphone. So, I bought a Vox a year ago for the quad band. I've fallen in love with the slideout keyboard, but I always wanted GPS. I'm really waiting to see about the tri/quad band GSM on the Touch Pro, otherwise I might go SE X1.

I too do not upgrade very often. I'm still using a 5 year old Sony 3.2 MP camera. I've taken over 5000 photos with it. I do a lot of research and spend money for the long run. I see the Touch Pro as just that. Lots of features that can be used for the long run. The TP has a long list of features I like, but here are some of the highlights. I like the micro SD slot so I can add more storage as cards become available. I like that it has a 3.1 MP auto-focus camera with flash. I like the GPS and accelerometer as I think a lot of applications in the future will use these. I like the keyboard. I like that the TP has video out cabability and that there is a forward facing camera. I'm ready to go to a WM Professional as it has more software potential than than the Smartphone OS. I like that there are so many people on XDA-Developers that are smart enough and kind enough to share and to unlock a lot of the features that are built in but unavailable without cooking. I'm hoping that the TP will be able to be upgraded to WM7 when it's available. I'll probably get the Vodafone version of the Touch Pro sometime before Christmas as an upgrade, so that will reduce the price some.

well i think the question is more geared toward people who already have a kaiser..like people who spent 400-500 for the kaiser when it first came out and then 1-2 years later spending another 500 - 1000 for an upgrade that pretty much does the same thigns but just slight improvements..i can see someone forking out alot ona new device thats new in al aspects to a new user but i think people forking out the 1000 just to get an upgrade is rediculous...ill just wait till its here in the su and i can buy it on craigslist brand new like i did with my tilt i had an 8525 which i got for 300 brand new on craigslist and ended up selling it about 6 months later for 280 and buying a tilt for 350

Well, because it kicks ass like this gif???



No, honestly... the last time I bought a PocketPC (in 2004) I also paid about €600. WindowsMobile was/is not meant to be a cell phone OS in the first place. It simply is much more regarding a mobile OS (and hopefully WM7 will finally achieve to differ from the continous "patch it to match it" strategy that MS has been following the last years regarding WM). If you look at the things you can do with a WM device and the software available it is not as limited as some of the cell phones out there... anyways, you can argue that there are cell phones or even other PPCs that can do the same for less.
But well, that is what you have to pay to have it all... all the latest technology squeezed in that "brick". The iphone 3g is not available for much less if you get it unsubsidized...

So why am I buying a Touch Pro?
Because it is the first cell phone/PocketPC in years that finally seems to be able to deliver all that I am currently expecting to have in one package with almost no compromises...

Because my phone is the gadget I use most ofter, I have it around me 24/7 wherever I am, and I use it for lots of different things. I type much more SMS than make calls, so I decided I want a physical keyboard. But at the same time I really hate those monsters like Blackberries and Nokias, I want something small.

And if you think $1000 a lot, you should pay a visit to Brazil. Not only we pay around 70% of what we earn in taxes, a Tytn II here costs $2000. A decent notebook costs $5000. A Honda Civic costs $40000+.

My current phone costed me $800, and it's a crappy Motorola one running Linux.

Touch Pro probably won't be released here for at least 6 months, so I will be very happy buying it for $1200 on the gray market.

Im buying one as it ticks all of my boxes, I just sold my Athena as I was dissilusioned by how poor it was with win video playback and it's use with orb aswell as it's lack of ability to handle the internet properly. I flogged it on ebay and purchased an oqo 01+ ( for those that dont know it is a full windows xp laptop the same size as an athena/ameo ) it is excelent for video and internet, so now your asking what has this got to do with the raphael, well the oqo is a laptop not a phone, so my next phone has to
1) Be a modem preferably as fast as possible
2) Run tomtom because satnav for win xp truly sucks
3) Have a keyboard for easy texting
4) Have wifi so I can use wm wifi router for fullspeed modem use (bluetooth limits at 1Mbps but the raph can run at 7Mbps)
5) Have vga because I hate qvga res i need more screen space
6) Has to be small and pocketable, I already have a miniature laptop on me I dont need two bulky devices

I am going to upgrade to it though, through T-Mobile.

Your assumptions in the first post kinda fit me apart from the college student part lol

I wouldn't say I earn too much money either, about average wages for my area anyway. I am single though, I'm still living with parents and yeah, I basically have a lot of spare cash

5 reasons...

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1. It best meets my top 20 list of mobile device hardware/software specifications.
2. I want to silence every Apple iPhone, Samsung i900 OMNIA, Nokia N96, Sony Xperia and Samsung INNOV8 owner...when they all come out!
3. I have several folks dying to buy my TyTN II.
4. I just got my GOVERNMENT STIMULUS CHECK.
5. THE WIFE said I could get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

T
E
C

I don't make a ton of money (just left IT job to go back to grad school), but will get enough use of the pro to warrant the price. I also keep tech for a while (still have my SE P810i) and am willing to buy with contract, so my price/time used should be fairly low.

Features that grabbed me:
* KB -- I'll be typing short descriptions and strings of numbers out in the field and don't want to have to bring my Fujitsu T2010 tablet all of the time.
* Vid Out -- for presentations
* microSDHC -- already have a handful of 8gb cards I use with my nav unit and mp3 player
* wifi/3g -- quick speeds for checking email, sending field data out, input data into web app/db
* WM OS -- hoping to be able to remote desktop occasionally. would love to be able to run local wamp setup (yes, I'm a dreamer), good opportunities for 3rd party apps, utils, cooked rom's, reg hacks, etc.
* improved interface and speed for general pda use (contacts, todo lists, calendar, etc.)

I expect to pay significantly less than $900 with 1-2 yr contract and use the phone daily for multiple activities for 2 years. Not pricey at all imo.