I broke my reliable, 1+ year old Ericsson W960i phone last January during our Boracay trip.  I forgot that it was in my pocket when I boarded a banca (boat) and waded in the waste deep water. Stupid me! Anyways, that’s the price of being careless.

After a few days of using my old phones I decided that it’s time to get me a new phone.  For the past 6 months or so, I’ve been noticing and considering the IPhone after seeing it in action when I visited my sister’s place.  It was indeed the Gadget of the Year.  First of all, it stands out from all the rest due to the large amount of applications (free and cheap) available in the App Store.  It was indeed a toy with a phone feature.  It is essentially the same as the IPod Touch but the latter has no possibility of 3G internet and phone of course.  IPod touch is half the price but knowing myself, I didn’t want to carry (and be responsible for) more than 1 gadget.

I visited a Globe Telecom store in Greenhills and was told that they are out of stock and I would need to be signed up in a queue.  She said it would take not days but months to even get one! Sheesh. Frustrating.

For days, I tried to find out ways how I could get one.. I can buy one from the US or Canada but those would be locked.  The HongKong online Apple store seemed perfect: it sold factory unlocked phones but I had no idea how to ship it here. There’s also some online stores such as the KIM Multiply store.  My hubby did not think it was wise to buy from those online stores so I scrapped the idea.  I did call them up though.  I found out their store was located in Tayuman.

And so how did I end up having one?  While browsing computer shops in Megamall I ran across two stores that sell factory unlocked phones. These are obviously gray market stuff. I was not so sure if I would trust these stores.  One managed to show a demo unit for me.  Everything seemed to be ok and authentic. The price was a bit more than Globe’s (3,000 more) but not that high.  In the end, I decided to go home first and research more about it before I make a final decision.   Also, I have to make sure I am getting the real thing  and to know that I have to know the product a bit more.

After a few days, I knew I was ready to go back to the store.  To my surprise, the sales guy wasn’t there and it was another person who seemed not to remember me from last weekend.  She told me they had no more stocks of the 16GB but only the 32GB.  So I went home quite disappointed.  At least I was able to get the phone number of the other store.

That weekend, I first called that other store and found out that they had it.  A few hours later I was there. I brought my laptop so we could activate the phone right there using my ITunes account.  Fortunately, I had been a US ITunes User for several years already. No need to create one.  I was able to download apps with no problems. While I was there, the guy from the other store found me and was so regretful seeing me buy the phone there.  I told him he wasn’t there when I came back a few days later and that they had no stock then.  So I went here instead.

Since I had my phone, I have already downloaded so many apps.. I even bought one: Plants and Zombies which was the best selling app during that time.  There’s so much cool stuff one can play with I can’t even begin to enumerate.  Maybe the next few posts I will talk about IPhone-related stuff.  Stay tuned. Gosh! I love my IPhone!