Analyst Opinion - Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of a touch screen phone to begin with because I can’t live without a keyboard, but looking in depth at the three competing offerings currently on the market (you can’t yet buy the nice HTC Touch Diamond or RIM Thunder in the U.S.) and the services they are connected to I would put the iPhone last.

Before I explain my perspective, I have to say that I tend to look at a phone primarily as just that - a phone. Everything else is secondary and reading and writing email on a phone screen is a lousy experience anyway, regardless of how well the phone integrates.

I was prompted to write this article when I was copied on an email string this morning from a guy named Alex whose wife hates her first generation iPhone and thinks AT&T now owes her a new second generation phone. In reading through the email, I think the problem is that she picked the wrong phone in the first place and simply isn’t a good customer for the iPhone to begin with.

Battery life? What battery life?

Every one of these phones has, in my view, a horrid battery life. To me, a dead phone is little more than a paper weight and the iPhone’s fixed battery and the fact that the design change is not compatible with previous third party external batteries makes the new iPhone a non-starter for me.

I don’t care how good something looks if the battery is dead, but with the Samsung Instinct and the LG you can get at least a spare battery and the Samsung’s price actually includes a second battery. This one thing trumps everything else for me as I depend on my phone.

Service plan cost

I pinch pennies. I think we all need to in times when gas is starting to reach legendary levels.

To get the price of the iPhone down, they increased the service plan cost and TG Daily previously asked whether Apple should be sued over false advertising on these costs. You will pay $200 for the iPhone and then $90 a month ($40 voice + $30 data + $20 for unlimited texting) for the service for 2 years (450 minutes and unlimited data), bringing the total cost for the two years with this plan to $2359 (excluding taxes). The LG Dare which is connected to the, in my opinion, better Verizon network, costs $239 for the 8 GB version (it uses flash cards so you can swap memory out) and $80 a month for similar coverage with the result being $2159. The Samsung is priced at $229 and comes with a similar plan at $70 a month for a $1909 two year cost.

All of them are pricey phones, but Samsung has the best price followed by the LG.

iPhone advantages

The iPhone has a better browser and most think its virtual keyboard is better as well. In addition, if you like the connection to iTunes and you want third party applications, currently neither the Samsung nor the LG offer this capability. There a lot of folks who just like Apple and neither Samsung nor LG are Apple.

Why I would favor the Dare

To be clear, I wouldn’t buy any of these myself. I am waiting for either the RIM Bold or the HTC Touch Pro, because they have keyboards. But were I forced to choose one of these, I’d pick the LG Dare. This is because of the replaceable battery, the better Verizon network (generally better for Voice and Data in the U.S.), and the slightly better price because those are the most important factors to me.

What you should do before buying any of these, is sit down and figure out what is best for you and use those requirements to select a phone, if it exists on the market yet, that best meets your needs.

Making a smart choice

What I suggest is before you buy a new phone, be it from Apple or anyone else, take a step back and ask yourself what you really need. You may find that the new phone isn’t as good, for you, as the one you already have and, particularly if you don’t currently have a smart phone, the service costs (think about it: At $90 a month you are basically buying a new $200 iPhone with service charges every other month) can get expensive really quickly.

With prices going through the roof and the required two year commitment, take a breath, think about your choices (including to not buy anything) and make a choice that won’t have you, or others, questioning your judgment.
There is a good chance better cheaper phones will be hitting the market before October anyway and by then, the battery and other problems with the new iPhone will at least be partially mitigated if not corrected. And I’ll bet there will be incentives or a discount from Apple as well given the competitive pressures from RIM and others.

Make a careful decision. The smartest choice for now could be to keep the phone you already have.

Rob Enderle is one of the last Inquiry Analysts. Inquiry Analysts are paid to stay up to date on current events and identify trends and either explain the trends or make suggestions, tactical and strategic, on how to best take advantage of them. Currently he provides his services to most of the major technology and media companies.