Please, Mr. Jobs, may I have an iPhone?

About 3 months ago, I bought an iPod Touch with this year's bonus money. I didn't need one; I had a very nice Nano that worked just fine. But my daughter wanted to upgrade her Shuffle (which was having trouble holding a charge anyway) to something that did video, and quite frankly, I'm a tech geek. I wanted a cool new toy. The only reason I hadn't bought the Touch years ago (when I bought my Nano - the square one, the first that did video) was price. I didn't have the money at the time. Now I did, especially when Apple gave me the trade-in discount for the semi-functioning Shuffle. So since I can't afford an iPad (and it's a little big to carry in my purse anyway), I got my Touch.

You may ask, why a Touch anyway? Well, a couple reasons. One, they have a bigger storage capacity than the Nano (I've got 32GB), and two, most of the applications in the App store run on the Touch. Really, the Touch is the iPhone, but without the phone part. It has WiFi. It plays games; I've purchased several, and haven't touched my Nintendo DS since I bought the Touch. I set it up to access my Gmail account. I got the Facebook app, a bunch of reader apps (which I wrote about here), a grocery list app, and a couple others. All of which will work on the iPhone, and some on the iPad, if and when I ever get those devices. It has already mostly replaced my laptop at home. Just want to check my Gmail and Facebook? Use the Touch. Want to look up directions? Use the Touch (it even supports printing to my wireless printer from some apps). Want to check on that actor from Babylon 5? IMDb app on the Touch. The only things the laptop gets broken out for is Quicken, my novel writing, and my Comcast email address, which I access through Outlook (and if I could figure out how to set up multiple email accounts on the Touch, I wouldn't do that either).

All of this is why I would really like an iPad. But I digress.

A friend of mine at work, who has an iPhone, said the Touch would quickly make me realize that the touch interface on my phone (a Samsung Omnia running Windows Mobile Pro 6.0) was not as slick. And he was right. It's not that I hate the phone now, but it is definitely more finicky than Apple's touch interface. I have to touch it in exactly the right place, and it's a pressure-based touch, whereas Apple's is electrostatic. And then there's just the quirks of Windows to deal with (For example, every so often my text messages refuse to type. I'm typing, but no letters are showing. The fix is easy; kill the text message "application," restart, and there you go, but still - really?).

I have long thought the iPhone was pretty cool. The one thorn in my side, however, continues to be one simple fact: it only works with AT&T. I do not have AT&T. I have cell service through Verizon, and I'm very happy with it, thankyouverymuch. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg, most of my family has Verizon (meaning it's free to talk to them), and I've always had excellent service, both in terms of signal and customer.

In contrast, I know several folks, including those with iPhones (and who are very happy with their iPhones) who are less than enamored of AT&T. In fact, one guy I know recently ditched his iPhone for a Droid. Did he hate the iPhone? No - he just didn't like the service from AT&T. So my motivation to leave Verizon for AT&T is, well, very low (to put it mildly).

In the grand tradition of tech and Apple, rumors abound about the iPhone coming to Verizon specifically, and a CDMA version coming in general. But according to this report from CNM News Network (which references a story from TheStreet.com), a Verizon executive recently said that a Verizon version of the iPhone was not coming "in the near future." And although there are multiple rumors of Apple contacting manufacturers and a CDMA version available by Christmas, everything I have found also says that Apple's exclusivity deal with AT&T does not expire until 2012, not this summer as I had believed. That kind of squashes my hopes that my next phone will be an iPhone.

Of course, I've also read that Apple is moving away from exclusivity agreements in other countries, so it only makes sense it would do the same in the US. Frankly, I know a lot of people say the type of cell service used by AT&T (as opposed to CDMA) is superior. Okay, well, I don't know about that. I do know that I've never had a reason to complain about coverage, service, or call quality in the 8 years I've been with Verizon.

It will be unfortunate if Verizon still doesn't have the iPhone by next fall (October 2011), which is when I'll be eligible for a new phone. I generally only upgrade every other year because I can't afford the full cost of a new phone. Now, I don't think AT&T or Apple ever offered a discount on the iPhone, so it may not matter; the phone may cost what it costs with no discounts. However, if Verizon decides to apply the "New Every Two" credit to the iPhone, and they don't have one available next October, it will be October 2013 before I can get my hands on one. And that sucks, because I really, REALLY want one. Heck, even my husband wants one and he's not a tech geek.

So if all this is true, and it will indeed be 2013 before there is a CDMA iPhone, if ever, (and I can't believe that Apple would not want access to the millions of Verizon cell customers in the US. Steve Jobs wants to make money, and he would sell an awful lot of iPhones if Verizon suddenly offered that option) I will most likely be looking for a Droid as my next phone. Don't get me wrong; the Droid looks very nice, and I know folks who have them, and who are very happy. But it's not the iPhone.

And for all the rampant speculation, CNM News is correct in saying "Nothing from the Cupertino, California based company exists until Steve Jobs himself says so."

So please, Mr. Jobs, may I have an iPhone?