A lot pundits are spouting about the imminent doom or sweeping success of Apple’s upcoming iPhone.

While I am what could be called a fan of the products Apple designs, I am more of a fan of whatever makes work easier.

This is why, I am passing on version 1.0 of the iPhone.

Over the last few years, I have searched for the optimal mobile solution, and keep ending up with the same company’s products - Nokia.

Motorola, Samsung and LG all make quite usable mobile phones, but lack the platform appeal to draw 3rd party developers.

Sony Ericcson’s offerings while highly attractive and usable, seem more focused on purely consumer oriented devices.

Palm’s Treo is fairly ubiquitous, but the Palm OS platform is beyond long in the tooth. I had more crashes of Treos than any other mobile device.

Blackberry’s are by far the most email friendly mobile platforms. But web browsing and 3rd party applications are ridiculously encumbered by proxy gateways, signing and deployment procedures. While the email client is wonderfully efficient, having to pass all email through a 3rd party server is unacceptable to me.

This bring me to Nokia. While their interface could use some polish, the core of the S60/80 platforms are deserving of the label platform. There is a thriving 3rd party community, Nokia has been embracing an open platform strategy with their 770/800 internet tablets, and is pushing the envelope with the convergence of photography, video, music and VoIP on their latest devices.

This is why I just spent my iPhone fund on a Nokia N95. The convergence of Video, Photograpy, GPS, VoIP, WIFI, Internet and Voice are an outstanding value.

It is more expensive than the iPhone, unless you consider the contractual requirement that Cingular may enforce to get one. But the functionality is incredible when compared side by side.

When Apple truly opens up the iPhone to 3rd party developers I would get one. But not until they offer unencumbered access to the platform. I would not pay a license fee or endure some lengthy approval process to gain access to the distribution pipeline.

I expect version 2.0 to be the real shining star of Apple’s mobile effort. By then they should implement HSDPA, 4MP+ photography and video, open the platform and perhaps offer VoIP options like Skype or Gizmo.

Tomorrow: Why I didn’t wait for the official U.S. version of the N95.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Nokia, N95, N93