Today, I packaged up my iPhone and returned to it to its owner. Notice I still refer to it as *my* iPhone even though it really didn't belong to me. I was just borrowing it for a few short weeks as part of an article I was writing. Even though I knew I couldn't keep it, it was still hard to say good-bye.
Although we only had three or four weeks together, the relationship grew and developed and I added my own music, photos and customized it just for me. My biggest surprise was I liked watching You Tube video on it, I who have always claimed I couldn't watch video on the small screen. It was actually kind of fun in short bursts.
When my wife and I bought a new vacuum cleaner last month, we brought along the iPhone and did some research on the one we bought right in the store. It was cool having the internet in my pocket. My favorite review was from a guy who didn't like the unit because when it fell down the stairs, it broke. He felt it should have been made better. Most people, however, loved it and we've been very happy so far too.
This morning, I connected the iPhone to my computer for the last time. I removed my music, stripped off my photos, cleared my cache and deleted my email. I cleaned its finger-print covered screen with the black cleaning cloth that comes with it, put all of its parts back into the box, filled out the FedEx slip and sent it home.
Maybe next year when my contract comes up for renewal I'll buy my own iPhone, but more likely I won't be able to justify the monthly fees and I'll stick to something a bit more conventional. For a few brief, shining moments though I held the state of the art right in my hands and it felt good. And I was a more than bit wistful when the FedEx man came and carried it away.
Comments