For the last couple years I’ve been using the iPhone 3G. At the time the only real choices were iPhone and Blackberry (Android was just coming out and Window Mobile was awful). I used both and chose the iPhone (thanks for the test drive Kim). It was a fabulous phone and truly groundbreaking. I never thought I could live without a cell phone, but the iPhone changed all of that. Email, web browser, maps, apps, etc. It became indispensible for my business and personal life. Two of my closest friends and a few clients ought iPhone’s after they saw mine.

Fast forward to the recent release of the iPhone 4 and the software update to version 4. Everyone who had a iPhone 3G suddenly owned a brick instead of a great phone. Everything slowed to a crawl. A few weeks later version 4.1 came out to correct the slowness that Apple admitted to, but it still wasn’t the same. I’m not one for conspiracies, but a part of me still believes that Apple (primarily a hardware manufacturer) made the old phones slower just to get people to upgrade their phones to iPhone4. It was time for a new phone and with the recent release of the new Windows Phone 7 system I was ready to give it a try as soon as my contract was up.

While only Apple makes iPhone, Microsoft (and Android) just make the software and leave it to the handset makers to produce the hardware. In the case of Microsoft, there are certain features and specs that each phone must have so there is a consistent baseline of functionality. The flagship phone was the Samsung Focus and fortunately that was the Windows Phone that my carrier, Rogers, offered.

Monday was the first full day I’ve had the phone and there was an initial learning curve after being in the iPhone environment for the last two years. I have to say I wasn’t sure how I was going to like the Windows Phone – I’d never even touched one. I was taking a real chance using my hardware upgrade option to get a phone I’d only read about. I wasn’t even 100% sold on how good it would be compared to the mature iPhone.

My quick opinion – it’s much better than I thought it would be and I could never go back to my old iPhone. It is sooooo fast and light. The apps are laid out differently than the iPhone in that everything slides from side to side and up and down in a very fluid motion. Just YouTube Windows Phone and you’ll see some demos. I can’t really explain it, but I don’t feel like I’m trapped in a App like with the iPhone. With the iPhone it seemed liked you bounced in and out App’s constantly. You do the same thing with with this phone, but it doesn’t feel like it. Maybe it’s fluidity of the motion and the multiple layers each app has. I don’t know, but I like it!!

Two years ago when I showed my iPhone to someone they asked about Microsoft options. I told them that Microsoft had totally missed the SmartPhone market, Windows Mobile 6.5 sucked and they’d never catch up to iPhone and Android. Boy was I wrong! To Microsoft’s credit they threw out the old Windows Mobile software and started from scratch. I don’t know if Microsoft will be able to compete with the massive Apple marketing (cult?), but Windows Phone is certainly a worthy competitor that’s going to continue to add features and apps.

I can’t really go into a lot of details on the phone since I’m just a newbie on it myself. But I can tell you that if you are looking for a SmartPhone you would certainly do yourself a favor by looking at the Windows Phone products. It’s a brilliant, refreshing change and in many cases an improvement.