I purchased a Sprint PPC-6700 in December of 2005. It had the Windows Mobile 5 operating system. It was very tweakable right from the start and in town it got approximately 1000 kbps download speed on the Sprint EVDO Network. At that time this was nearly as fast as my cable modem.
At that time Sprint customer support actually gave me instructions on how to “tether” the phone to my laptop through a USB cable. Calls would still ring through while the phone was tethered to the laptop. I had a very reasonably priced truly unlimited data plan from Sprint and this was one of the primary uses for the phone.
By the time the first iPhone approximately 2 years later, I knew how to get the most out of the PPC-6700 and I wasn’t very impressed with the capabilities of the iPhone. I especially could not figure out why the iPhone didn’t come with high speed cellular data as the PPC-6700 did.
For our next “smart phones” we picked Sprint Touch Pro 2 phones. They had the “Windows Mobile 6” operating system which had a few small improvements over WM5 which came on the PPC-6700. The TP2s had better screens than the PPC-6700s and faster processors, but functionally there were only evolutionary changes. It was a very easy transition for us and we used them for several years before switching to Android Phones.
The Android phones were more capable than the Windows Mobile phones but there was a bit of a learning curve. So we didn’t appreciate the improvements as much as we might have.
Flash forward a couple more years and my wife and I have retired and we switched to Ting which is a low cost reseller of Sprint cell phone service. They charge by your actual usage. There is no activation fee and it is only $6 a month to add an additional cell phone to your account. So I re-activated one of the Touch Pro 2 phones. I had fond memories from when we were using them and I still remembered how to get the most from one.
Now that we are accustomed to using Android phones using the TP2 again was a pain in the butt. Within a couple of months I replaced it with a used Samsung S3 Android phone that I purchased for $90 on eBay. The newer phones are much better compared to the older phones. Functionally the TP2s will do most of what the Androids will do, but the experience is not nearly as pleasant, and if I hadn’t spent several years using Windows Mobile OS phones it would have been worse.
It is about the same as switching back to an older computer. There are all of the little conveniences that speed and power provide that you get used to. When you go back it is a difficult adjustment to make.
The primary reason was that AT&T was the only cellular carrier that would play ball with Apple. . . all the rest wanted Apple to play the old way. . . allow carrier apps, carrier logos, and limited functionality unless the subscriber paid extra for each addition. Apple refused to go along with that program and persuaded AT&T to go with the whole enchilada for a single price structure. However, AT&T was fearful of load on their infrastructure, especially their newly installed and growing 3G network which was only available in certain core markets. . . so AT&T insisted that as part of their price to agree to accepting Apple's terms, Apple could NOT install a 3G radio in their new phone. . . lest it overwhelm AT&T's networks. Only 2G Edge connection would be allowed.
Apple had to force a re-negotiation of their contract with AT&T before the iPhone 3G could be released, because the original agreement was a FIVE YEAR lock-in. Thank goodness that Apple had enough clout by then they could do that. Insiders say that Steve Jobs threatened to throttle manufacture of iPhones unless AT&T would renegotiate the onerous terms. . . AT&T blinked! Jobs also required that AT&T had to move aggressively on both expanding 3G and 3.75G (called 4G) in that new contract. . . and ended exclusivity in the US. That was one hell of a lot of clout! What kind? iPhone was accounting for better than 60% of the phones sold by AT&T!