Choosing Between The Apple iPhone Or Nokia N95
With all the hype over the iPhone in the past few weeks, it was hard not to get caught up in it.
With the time approaching to upgrade my own handset, I was very tempted to jump in to the pool and ttry Apple’s iPhone myself, but resisted the urge.
Last week though, I went looking, and it came down to a choice between the Apple product, and Nokia’s N95.
Working my way around different shops I got to play with both. I found the iPhone very intuitive, but price was always going to be a major factor in my decision.
I have been using a Nokia 6288 for the past couple of years, and didn’t expect the N95 to be that much different, though I did find it less intuitive than the earlier phone.
I did end up settling on the Nokia product though, as in most areas, for me at least, it appears to match, if not better the iPhone, and is of course much cheaper to purchase.
Okay, Where Do I get It?
Right The Nokia N95!
I made my decision, but of course, there has been a big push on the Nokia offering too, so it seemed to be sold out every where I checked.
The local store was expecting new stock ‘some time’ over the next week or so.
The two stores that I checked at Sydney airport were both out of them, so I called into Westfield at Parramatta on the way home.
There must be one here I thought, with such an abundance of phone stores!
But I appeared to be out of luck! Having made arrangements to meet my wife at Kmart, I gave up my search and went to see what sort of a hit our budget had taken.
As I neared the bottom of the escalator near Kmart, I glanced over and saw another phone store, maybe…
The Vodafone store, part of the Star Communications chain, was flat out!
Here I met Dennis, Fung and my new phone!
I’m mentioning these guys because of the excellent service that I received when I walked into the store.
Once Fung had checked and saw that I wouldn’t be happy with something else, he got on the phone, turned to me and said “We have one at another store, and it will be here within an hour or so”.
Great! We fixed up the details so that I could be under way as soon as I returned, and I went in search of my wife.
After coffee, I returned to the store and was on my way, phone in hand within minutes.
Why do I mention this part of the purchase?
Left the Apple iPhone!
Simply because of the attitude of the guys in the store. You see, being involved in marketing, and dealing with the public, I like to see how different businesses operate.
To me, there is no sense in spending a fortune on advertising to draw people in to your store if they are going to leave disappointed.
Word of mouth is a powerfull marketing tool, both in the positive and negative sense.
I’m sure that Apple has sold a lot more of their phones due to the buzz on social networking platforms than they otherwise might have.
Most of the stores that I had tried earlier in the day simply said no, or handed me a card with instructions to call in “next week sometime.”
The fact that I lived almost three hours away was lost on them.
The Vodafone Select store operated by Star Communications can be found at Shop 3044A, Westfield Shopping Center, Parramatta.
You can contact them on 02 9687 0700. (International +61 2 9687 0700)
Please Note:
I have no affiliation with Star Communications, Vodafone, Nokia or Apple.
Opinions expressed in this post are based on my research, and the conclusions that I’ve reached are based on my personal needs.
Right The phone that my N95 replaced, the Nokia 6288!
Update November 16, 2017
Nokia what? I’ve long since moved into the 21st century, and am now using a Samsung S7. I never could get used to those iPhones, though today the debate is about Android and the Apple product.
I prefer Android simply because the number of manufacturers competing for consumers keeps development moving.
2016 saw me purchase what I thought was the best phone that I’d ever had, the Note 7, but of course that didn’t last to to well documented issues…. disappointing to say the least.
Of course, Nokia is no longer the force that it was, though it is trying for (another) comeback after being snagged, chewed up and sold again by Microsoft. How things change..
Hi Allan,
I would be interested in what the N95 offered that the iPhone didn’t. I am looking at upgrading my Nokia 6233 in the next few months and am seriously considering a PDA/Phone.
I want to be able to use Skype, Mail, Calendar etc and be able to have my own portable office. The iPhone doesn’t seem to cater for all of that.
Just interested in your perceptions.
Charly Leethams last blog post..What Challenges You?
G’day Charly,
The N95 will do everything listed there but Skype on the plan that I’m on with Vodafone, however, Three offers a Skype function, you can buy online, and they should have good coverage where you are.
At the moment, if I were to use Three here, I would be facing increased costs for the use of Skype, so I passed.
My suggestion would be to go to a Vodafone store, and compare the two phones there, as they sell them both.
Three sells them here, and you can check out their Skype option as well.
The only thing that the iPhone had that the nokia didn’t was the touch screen, and it was more expensive as well.
The N95 has a better quality camera..
More to come as I explore and learn, Cheers!
You rock Allan! Thanks. I only want to use the IM function of Skype, not the calling. Skype has a PDA version – which I have installed on my very old IPaq but can’t use because it doesn’t have an inbuilt connection (I use Bluetooth to connect ot my phone). I think I will look very closely at the N95.
We’ve had Nokia’s for 15 years, and except for the 6233 haven’t had any real problems in that time.
Thanks for taking the time to respond!
The iPhone is slimmer, less chunky, has the inbuilt ipod and has a choice of either 8gb or 16gb memory as well as the touch screen.
The N95 comes with 8gb memory, though there is sure to be an upgrade on the way, a 5 mega pixel camera as against 2 for the iphone, with an extra camera enabling video messaging and of course, an mp3 player.
I can see myself maybe buying an iphone one day in the future, but at present I feel that I would only be paying for the Apple name.
It is a nice unit, I do like it, but as far as I am concerned the Nokia is great value for me.
Nokia? I know they’re good phones.. But it really doesn’t have much on the iPhone.
The development platform just doesn’t exist on the Nokia as it does on the iPhone OS. There’s all sorts of really quality applications and games you can add to the iPhone, with lots of them for free.
The OS is based on the same underpinnings as Mac OS X, so it is basically a touchscreen UNIX-based device: geek bliss 😛
The web browser is really awesome too, pinch to magnify, drag to scroll, it’s so much better than buttons.
The first mistake was thinking of buying it in Sydney. I don’t where you live, but they sell them at most Optus, Vodafone, and Telstra shops. If you buy something at the Apple Store, you’ll probably get a lot of hype.
I actually don’t own one, but I do own an iPod touch – which is a happy medium, while it doesn’t have GPS like the iPhone 3G, it basically runs the same operating system.
And doesn’t need a contract!
Another drawback of the iPhone is that it doesn’t record video – why this is so, I have absolutely no idea, it’s not like the processing power isn’t there.
Since I use my iPod touch so much, I can see myself running down the battery at a time when I really would need to make a call, so I still keep a Sony Ericsson for a phone.
Thanks for the comment Peter!
It all comes down to individual choice, and what represents best value to the consumer.
I chose the N95, and had the opportunity to purchase the iPhone if I preferred, but I feel that at present the Nokia offers the best value for me.
The store that I bought from had both in stock!
Cheers