I have been an AT&T customer for almost a decade. Well, I came to AT&T as a Cingular customer. I am not terribly unhappy about AT&T but there are few areas I think they keep ignoring.

Every time I complete the contract and go to a new phone, my old phone becomes a paper weight. AT&T doesn’t seem to have a policy on unlocking the phone once the contract term is complete. I would like to give away the phone, like my iPhone 3G to someone outside US. Sure you can find ways to jailbreak and unlock it. But I prefer a simple mechanism to do that. Apple doesn’t seem to help either. This is not an environmentally responsible policy from either AT&T or Apple.

AT&T’s call quality (this could be the fault of iPhone as well) is not that good. AT&T 3G in the Silicon Valley is terrible. I am tired of submitting reports through that app. All the places I have had 3G or coverage problems, I still have the problem. May be Silicon Valley is not a priority for AT&T or the local governments do not cooperate with them. Either way, I do not get a good voice or data service from AT&T.

I did not like iPhone 4 design. The flat back side and sharp edges are not for me. I am a Windows user and iTunes is not really good Windows citizen. I also don’t like an application requires a few background processes even when I don’t need them.

Here are a few things I would be looking to if I make a switch, in addition to the above 2 primary requirements.

iPhone on another network could be tempting. Hopefully without those sharp edges.

No need for a computer to download and sync. May be it is not a big deal but iTunes turned me off from the idea of updating and syncing via a computer.

I prefer the OS update comes from the OS vendor, not the hardware or service provider. They do not have enough motivation to keep my phone up to date. If the last supported update to the phone comes 6 months to an year after the phone release, then it becomes a paper weight.

I have a Denon AVR 4308 CI and on my harmony 880 remote, only the basic commands for Denon AVR 4308 CI are available.

I have been using this remote for over 2 years. The buttons on the side of the display are no longer very responsive. I have to press them real hard. This may hold true for all Harmony remotes with that design.

It is a big iPhone. Really big one. If you love your iPhone, you are going to love this one. I am looking at the iPad home page at Apple. Steve Jobs proved himself wrong by creating a computing device that starts at $500. Sometimes proving yourself wrong is a good thing.

This is going to be the best YouTube player on the go for a while. Clam shell designs are outdated. They make the overall size while use uncomfortable. Nobody took that clue from cell phones, until now. Also an inch think tablets are not comfortable for lot of purposes, like reading books and magazines. The user interface is made for multi touch. Not just adjusted to multi touch. Touching on text to get things done is lame. Text should be there to assist when needed.

It is very thin. Thin enough to hold while lying down to read a book or using while traveling.

There is no clam shell to flip open. That is a no no for bed time, travel and such. I would rather carry a phone to do my computing than to carry a flip open computer while traveling.

No convoluted navigation to launch applications. iPhone already has a reasonably intuitive way to list applications.

App store. All your apps you purchased for your iPhone will download and work on iPad. There will be apps specifically designed for iPad as well.

iBooks. This is a huge improvement over what exists out there. The format is ePub. Now you don’t need to carry two devices for computing and reading. Let’s not go to the argument “you could always read on PC”. Since the format is ePub, you should be able to read books from multiple providers, technically. I see my Sony e-book reader going away. It is black and white and its battery doesn’t last this long.

Maps. There is definitely a big advantage to having a bigger screen for maps than on a phone. If Google can get the turn by turn navigation on to this one, it is an instant winner.

The iPad Case is has an amazing design. It allows you to use iPad in various positions to watch video and type.

The WiFi only models may appeal to some but in my opinion you may miss out on great apps that will require GPS. From what I understand only the WiFi+3G have the GPS.

I am an audio/video nut and the specs for iPad video specs doesn’t appeal much to me. It should have been 1080p. I know that would have meant lower battery life and higher price. May be a future version will have that.

The biggest gripe I have is same for all Apple products. No standard output connectors. Only the proprietary Apple connector. It solves the problem of having too many ports though. May be when we get to streaming everything, it wouldn’t matter. For now it means more accessories and cables.

Other OS vendors and their “partners” can start working on tablets now that everyone knows how a tablet should look and work. All they have to remember is what is important is not what is on the surface.