Exactly one week ago I took the plunge and snagged an iPhone at my local Starbucks (what, Apple didn’t tell you that you could buy one at Apple stores, AT&T stores, and now Starbucks?) After the initial excitement of having the coolest gadget in the world wore off, I began to really use the iPhone for my daily mobile phone tasks… calling other humans, reading and writing email, and surfing the web.

I couldn’t put the iPhone down, and every other person I showed it to was in awe of my groovy new Star Trek-looking device. I remember doing the same thing with my Q after I’d put a hot new app on it like Skype or the SlingPlayer. I’d show it to a friend and they would be totally impressed with the technology. The biggest difference that I’ve noticed is that with the Apple iPhone I never have to show someone how to get to the app or how to use it. I’d have to do that with the Q, but not the iPhone. The interface is the iPhone’s biggest breakthrough. Yes, it has shortcomings, but no other mobile device on the planet can touch the iPhone when it comes to its slick, finger-loving touch screen interface.

I don’t miss my Q one bit. In fact, a friend of mine who still has a Q stopped by the other day to play with my iPhone (he too was blown away). While he was thumbing through its awesomeness, I took a look at his Q. Even after a few days, I couldn’t believe how archaic the Q now felt to me. It really felt like I was stepping back in time to the dark ages of mobile phones.

So, with the hype and excitement out of the way, I’ve decided that the Apple iPhone is a keeper. No need to wait 30 days, no need for further testing, this is the phone for me. As for my Verizon contract? I had another 1.5 years on my current contract, so canceling it would have cost me $145 (they pro-rate it from $175). We needed another phone in the family, so I downgraded the mega voice+data plan I had down to an extra $10/mo on our family plan to keep it going with an older Motorola flip phone I had lying around. End result: Verizon lost $90/mo but they can still consider that contract in their mega customer count.

I never thought a phone purchase would make me leave Verizon… until I saw the iPhone. Nice job, Apple. Bad move to pass on the iPhone, Verizon.

BTW, check out this funny video, iPhone Day.

The other night when I went through the AT&T sign-up process, it took all of about 5 minutes (if that) and I was able to start loading my new iPhone up with all sorts of goodies and play with it the first time.

In order to put the iPhone to real world tests I had to use my current VZW phone number, so I opted to transfer my old phone number from my Motorola Q to the iPhone. While I was able to dial out almost instantly from my iPhone, I could not receive calls.

The sign-up process stated it would be at least 6 hours before I would be receiving phone calls to my iPhone via my old VZW number, and that I would receive a text message when the transfer process was complete.

I activated my iPhone on Jul 3, 2007 10:27 PM and received the text message indicating the transfer was complete on Jul 5, 2007 1:30 AM. Not exactly 6 hours, but there was a holiday (Independence Day) here in the U.S. so if you rule out that 24 hour period, then it only took 4 hours…

So as of now MotoQ has been turned off, calls cannot be made or received and EVDO is dead in the water. I’ll call VZW Thursday to find out what the contract cancellation fee might be, or if it just makes sense to re-activate the phone with another number and add the MotoQ onto a family plan with my wife’s phone.

Have a nice rest, MotoQ. Or is it “Goodbye Moto” instead of their popular catch-phrase “Hello Moto” ?