A long goodbye for my iPhone 3GS

“Good night! Parting is such a sweet sorrow, that I’ll say good night til it be morrow.” – Shakespeare from “Romeo and Juliet”

Time had moved on my Iphone3GS like persistent waves upon a shore. Slowly, it had been losing responsiveness and luster, both visually and literally. For people, injuries maybe like a torn acl, bum shoulder, bad back or broken wrist, had served as a reminder,”Nothing is forever.” Today, marking a new phase of tech for myself, I had placed an order for a new mobile phone. Having this phone for over five years, had seemed like forever. As Prince had stated eloquently,“..forever and that’s mighty long time.”

The reason for holding onto iPhone 3GS so long, symbolism. It had meant emotionally quite a few things. At my last job, it had been a reward for job well done. In a world full of Blackberries, it had morphed into “being different” when everyone thinking it a toy. Lately, it had been an expression of patience and utility. The last rational had been the promise of something new on the horizon. Through the past few weeks, those reasons had waned with basic functionality.

This desire for functionality had driven my choice back to IOS and ATT. After trying T-Mobile, I had migrated back to ATT’s grandfathered unlimited data and decent national coverage. T-Mobile had been quite inexpensive but, lacking signal consistently on road trips. The reasoning for the IOS, it had simply worked after numerous upgrades across five years. Over time, I had spent plenty of money on different gadgets like TVs, DVD players, digital cameras, PCs, iMacs, and accessories. Some had delivered on their promise like this iPhone 3GS. Others, like my old Nike MP3 player, had fallen apart in months. My current phone had seen lots of action, ranging from drop in a pool to flung across parking lot to overheating on my hip from sweat. Still, the phone had a earned a certain rugged charm and respect. Any expectation of functionality on a new device had one thing left to execute on, potential.

Placing an order this morning at 3 am, I had wondered on that promise. On deciding what device you had wanted to purchase next, keep this in mind,”Does this address my needs today?” Forget Apple marketing and high school trolling commentary, this kind of decision had been about your daily productivity. After that, I had thought,”Don’t spend a dollar more!” In the Queen song, “Who Wants to Live Forever,” there had been a line that epitomized technology, “What is forever anyway.” For time to the next big thing had never been that far around the corner.

As for the iPhone 3GS’s ultimate fate, it had been designated for MP3 player detail until death.

Here had been the other phones, I had used this century.

Nokia 1100 Series (4 years)
Blackberry 7230 (4 years)