My rules for choosing a new Smartphone

Everyone has their own criteria for the perfect smartphone.  For some, a smartphone is a grown-up GameBoy.  For others, it's a portable TV set.  Another group just wants to keep making phone calls.  The high school/college set just wants to send THOUSANDS of text messages.  And then there's the group which wants to leverage these new tools to free themselves from a fixed office, get "out there" but still have all their office functions in today's "post-PC" world.  Especially for THAT group (and possibly for others as well), here are MY rules for choosing a new Smartphone.

Rule #1: Most people can't go wrong with an iPhone (I'm biased -- it's what I use myself).

Rule #2: AVOID any Android phone at a version less than 4.0 (waaaay outdated and may never be upgraded).

Rule #3: If you've still got a Blackberry, choose one of these three -- BB is on its way down.

Rule #4: If you have or are going to get an iPad, then get the iPhone, because they work the same. If you're going to get some other tablet, buy the corresponding phone running the same software.

Rule #5: Smartphone software scales up to run on larger screen tablets, but you end up with 'fuzzy' software, as opposed to a native tablet experience.

Rule #6: When purchasing a tablet, remember that most developers write native tablet (ie large-screen) software for iOS (ie iPhone/iPad) first. Apple has sold 100 MILLION tablets. Other tablets sell based on lower price, but their users' software experience leaves much to be desired.