Ball of Frustration and Misery - Which iPhone 5

I'd like to get an iPhone 5. Which model to pick is wrapped in a ball of frustration and misery. What I want doesn't exist, it never will… I'm bitching.

A few good posts have come out addressing this subject but they are all from the perspective of US residents frequently traveling internationally. James Duncan Davidson has an excellent write-up. As does TidBITS. If I was in this scenario it would be easy. Get the Verizon model, unlocked.¹ Verizon has the best US LTE network and you can use internationally on the most carriers.

Why this option probably won't work for me is complicated and murky, let's dive in. I'm in the opposite situation as a United States citizen living in Nigeria, frequently traveling to other parts of Africa & Europe with occasional 1 - 2 weeks trips back to the US. As any international traveller has figured out - the US is the most difficult place in the world to get quality prepaid service for an iPhone. Stroll up to a cellular provider in the Atlanta airport (if you can find one) and they'll look at you with blank stares if you show them an iPhone and try to activate a prepaid SIM for a one week stay. Worse yet, go into an actual AT&T store - they'll tell you straight, no prepaid iPhones on our network. But I'm trying to give you my money… we don't care, get out of here.² You can get Verizon prepaid plans for an iPhone³, but getting a Verizon iPhone outside outside of the US is pretty much impossible.⁴

Alright so why not just stick with your my current 4S setup and be done with it. Well, I want the new iPhone and LTE, or at least the option to use LTE where available.

Traveling Internationally

The best way to deal with international roaming is to buy a local prepaid SIM. You'll get the best rates, avoid roaming charges and typically have the best service level. The downside is dealing with all the setup work. Trying to get credit into the account, pick a data bundle and a fair bit of the time you're doing this with hand signals or broken language. I've got quite a collection of SIM cards after 15 months outside the US.

The US Conundrum

Welcome to the land of subsidized phones and lock-in contracts. You can get a shiny new iPhone 5 for $199 from AT&T or Verizon, all you need to do is renew that two year contract at around $70/month (total cost $1879). Contrast this with an unlocked model at $650 and a prepaid plan from Straight Talk for $45 a month (total cost $1730) or from Cricket for $55 a month (total cost $1970). The prepaid plan might save you money, but not that much. And WTF is Straight Talk or Cricket. Ask just about any American walking around with an iPhone if they have heard of Straight Talk and you'll get blank stares.

Let's be real, anybody who can afford $70 or more per month for that iPhone plan isn't concerned with with saving a few dollars a month for the extra headaches associated with prepaid or dealing with these smaller unheard of carriers. Straight Talk and Cricket are piggybacking on AT&T and Verizon networks anyway. When you walk into the Apple store and buy that shiny new iPhone, you want to walk out surfing the internet and never have to worry about data bundles, voice plans, etc ever again.

I bring this all up because the US doesn't fit the international mold of the easiest way to travel is buy a local Prepaid SIM. It takes effort to get an iPhone working prepaid in the US.

I'll Pay for the Services that I Use

Postpaid kick ass. Lets be honest, nobody wants to be texting some obscure code to some equally obscure number when your data plans runs out or scrambling to recharge your account. Ideally we would have a prepaid usage model with a postpaid payment system. I don't want to pay $70/month for voice, SMS & data when all I'm really using is data.

1. I typically use about 1GB/month, for this I subscribe to a 1GB data plan which costs N3500 (about $22). This is good for 30 days or until the data limit is reached.
2. I use essentially no voice or SMS, less than N1000 (about $6) per month. The voice and SMS is not on a plan of any sort, my account is deducted a set rate per SMS or second of voice used.

As long as you have money/credit in your account and the data bundle hasn't run out this is a much better system for the consumer. Except the data bundle expires and your account doesn't auto-refill. You have to micro-manage everything about it. Does my account have credit, is my data bundle expired, blah blah blah. I'll give you my credit card number, you charge me for what I use.

Sure sure, some places allow auto-refill but you're still managing the data bundle stuff or there are other restrictions on the service plan. I want to show up in a country, stick that local prepaid SIM in the phone and start consuming. If no credit on my account, charge my credit card. Use the same data bundle I picked last time, I probably want the same one again.

What I Want

An unlocked, no contract Verizon iPhone 5. I can get a prepaid plan when I'm in the US and enjoy LTE. Outside of the US it will work like my current GSM iPhone 4S with the addition of supporting the most international LTE bands.

You can't buy an unlocked, no contract Verizon iPhone 5. To get a phone in this state I'd have to:

1. Buy a subsidized, on contract iPhone 5.
2. Activate my service for at least 2 months or until my account has been in good standing long enough to unlock the international SIM.
3. Cancel Verizon service. Not sure what additional fees I'd be subjected to for covering additional iPhone cost and breaking the contract.

I might actually do all this, although it sure seems like a lot of bullshit to jump through for the at most 3 weeks out of the year I'm in the US.

What I'll Probably Settle For, Maybe

An unlocked international 1429 model. I won't have LTE in the US (one of the few countries that actually has decent LTE service as of now) but I'll have the most options outside of the US. I can use Straight Talk prepaid to piggyback on the AT&T network without all the of the hassles of dealing with AT&T directly.

Ugh, in the US I'm typically spending my most time in areas with little or no AT&T service, visiting family in rural areas. Making this option taste even worse.

The Big Gotchas

1. Nano-SIMs: Who knows when Nigerian carriers will support the iPhone 5. It's hard enough getting a Micro-SIMs when traveling around Africa.
2. LTE: This isn't happening in Nigeria, where I spend the majority of my time. We don't even have reliable 3G service let alone 3G speeds.

All that for Nothing

I didn't order an iPhone 5 today. In fact I don't know when I will. If I'm able to get a Nano-SIM in Nigeria then I'll make a choice. Until then I'll keep hoping for a pay-as-I-go world that let's me use the services I want, with the carriers that I want, wherever I want.

Updated January 30th, 2013 after procuring an iPhone 5.

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1. Which is impossible in the US, however it is said Verizon will unlock after 60 days for international use if your account is in good standing.
2. It is possible, this is what I currently do but it involves "hacking" your APN settings.
3. The Verizon model is CDMA and only sold, locked to Verizon, in the US. It's the same 1429 model sold internationally but as far as I can tell the CDMA is disabled. So, buying this model internationally and getting it to work on the Verizon network would require an act of God, or Tim Cook.
4. Verizon appears to have prepaid plans that will work for the iPhone. Prepaid 80

Jottpad 1.1 in the App Store

Finally… It took over a year but a new version of Jottpad is ready,
Update Now.

This version includes a new Icon and Improved (at least I think) UI.

Included in the Update:
- iOS 5.1 Compatibility to no longer use Unique Device Identifier (UDID)
- Item Detail view for editing of longer Items
- Syncing & Speed Improvements

The UDID update is a big one and with that out of the way will allow me to keep moving forward at a much faster pace of releasing updates and new features.

Deprecated UDID, Motivated Me

Meh, I've been slacking…

We packed up the house and moved across an ocean. Nonetheless I've still had plenty of time to work on Jottpad - in fact I should be more focused on it than before since this is my only "job" at the moment.

Apple has started rejecting apps using the UDID (Unique Device Identifier). This is most likely in response to recent security and privacy concerns. Ad & data gathering services relied heavily upon this UDID for tracking user and device usage.

Jottpad uses the UDID for syncing to a specific device. This way you can have multiple devices registered under one email address and the syncing / sharing services keep track of device state. Jottpad never used the UDID for any other purposes and it was definitely not shared with any 3rd parties.

What does this have to do with me slacking? Well a new version of Jottpad has been in the works for months. However with this recent change to disallow UDID I've finally been motivated to get the new release out the door and update Jottpad to now longer use UDIDs.

Expect a new Jottpad about every 6 weeks - no more slacking!

Jottpad Grabs an Astounding 0.00000214285% of Market Share in First Week

Lets say 75% of the people in the United States make lists or use a similar organizational method to remember stuff. I had trouble figuring out an exact number - try searching for “percentage of people who use lists” - 3 of the top 10 responses have to do with making lists of people you’ve had sex with. Not exactly what Jottpad is for, but hey, however you want to use it is fine with me.

Anyway, if 75% of people are using lists and the number of iPhone users in the US is around 18.5 million as of March 2011. The potential user base of a list type app is about 14 million. You do the math - Jottpad is not breaking any download records in the App Store.

But, I am not discouraged. There is a potential market in the United States of 14 million iPhone users and worldwide that number is significantly more. Nearly 75% of iPhones are in use outside the US.

Why then, if the potential market is so big are the sales so small…

• The market is saturated with list apps
• The market is really saturated with list apps
• The market is really really saturated with list apps
• The market is really really really saturated with list apps
• Jottpad is on version 1
• Jottpad is feature-light
• Jottpad has no marketing, except me, and I’ve never done this

The list app market seems to be the hello world of the App Store. Hello world essentially meaning the sort of app one would build to learn programming on the iPhone. Tekpub, a video based instructional site, used a list app to explain iPhone development.

Every day you’ll see 5+ new apps show up in the Productivity category that essentially do what Jottpad does but without one key element - Syncing & Sharing via Jottpad.com - not Dropbox or a third party website. Jottpad.com gives me the ability to control my own destiny.

How to Measure Success

Ok, big potential market, Jottpad has control over its destiny, that’s all great but how does it equal more downloads and sales. Well, downloads and sales are just one metric of success. Granted it is THE metric of success used for the App Store but there are other ways to measure success.

My goal is to get enough downloads/sales to justify all the work I’ve put in & sustain future development. While I’m building the user base to that point I need other metrics to keep from getting discouraged.

1. Happy Users. Build an initial base of people using Jottpad on a daily or weekly basis. These early users will hopefully tell other people about Jottpad.
2. It Just Works. Ben Brooks wrote a good explanation of “It Just Works”. My take on it… Don’t make users feel stupid.
3. Build a useful product. No amount of numbers 1 & 2 will matter if Jottpad is not useful.

If I execute on these three points I’ll consider Jottpad a success. And hopefully the downloads and sales will follow.

What Comes Next

Go really fast. until a big decision needs to be made then slow down to do it right. Add worthwhile features, in a way that makes sense, which contribute to the overall vision of Jottpad.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein

I don’t usually believe in mission type statements having much value but for a one person product like Jottpad I refer to this motto. In practice this means taking a highly requested feature like adding date & time reminders to items - getting it in the hands of my users as quickly as possible, but not until it’s ready. In other words, work on the highest priority, get it done as fast as I can, and make it really good. Repeat.

Lesson Learned #1

I made a bone-headed move getting the word out about Jottpad and it’s been eating at me for the past week.

Being a 5by5 listener I knew Dan was in the middle of a move to Austin, Texas. So I sent him a tweet with a couple promo codes to check it out.

It might not seem like that big of a deal. I honestly thought he might find some use in Jottpad for sharing information with his wife while during the move to Austin. Obviously I was also trying to market Jottpad. If Dan liked the app and found it useful he might mention it on one of his 5by5 shows.

But, I have two issues with what I did.
1. As Dan pointed out putting Promo Codes in a public tweet made me look like an idiot.
2. I hastily composed this tweet - somebody in the middle of a move doesn’t need bothered with this sorta thing. I am in the middle of a move myself & the less you have to deal with the better.

Why is this seemingly simple thing still bothering me? Well I respect what Dan has done. I listen to a 5by5 show just about every day. I don’t want Dan thinking I’m a bone-head. And I don’t just want to blindly spam people with Jottpad. I don’t think I did that in this case but it could have come across that way.

So lesson learned. Don’t send quickly composed, not completely thought out tweets when promoting your app - you’ll look like a bone-head.