Need your advice for a business if you could please.

[Muldaak]

Hello all,

I am soon to be starting a business and I was hopeing I might get some advice on which phone would best suit my needs. I am placing this in this forum because I currently own the Touch Pro 2, but so far for only a week. I still have three weeks to swap if need be.

For my business there are a few "must have" and a few "would like to have" applications/abilities.

I am currently wondering which phone; the Touch Pro 2 or the Droid.

Here is what I need:

Quickbooks - Need to be able to access my quickbooks while out at a customers house. Reason being, I might need to update their Invoice, then print out a new one. Need to be able to run http://quickbooksonline.intuit.com/f...ing-solutions/

Maps - This is also very important. I need to be able to get directions to a customers house and also driving directions via a GPS unit. I know the TP2 can do this, but what I have searched for so far about it, it appears to be somewhat "iffy"? The Droid comes with this option according to my cousin who owns one.

C.C. Scanner - Need to be able to take Credit Cards. By having this option I open my payment options a bit. Not limiting the customer to cash/check only. This is the current unit that we are looking at. Click the "Phones & Hardware" tab, then scroll to the bottom to see the unit. http://payments.intuit.com/products/...processing.jsp

Home Screen - I love my TP2 Home screen. Clock, weather, date, Call History all on the front. Most important though is my calender of appointments right there on the first screen. The less button/icons I have to tap to get to these appt. the better. From my research so far, the droid can also do this, but requires some "unlocking" of the phone.
Post #46, with the orange circles wallpaper; http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread...=101554&page=5

Internet Browser - Accessing the internet is a must, due to having to look up some info for the job. It is almost guarenteed that I will need to look up some information on how to do something, and a set of forums I am part of, has the answers. So a good browser would be nice. Right now this Opera 9 is bugging the crap out of me. I know there is an update and better version out there for the TP2, but I didn't want to mess with it if I might be trading this in.

Those would be the main functions I can think of right now that I would need. Other things I would like, but aren't neccessary, would be:

Excel speadsheets - looking at and maybe editing
You Tube - instructional videos, new equipment videos etc.
Printing - ability to print the new Invoice
T.V. - Only for when I travel and having nothing to do at the hotel

I thank you for your time and I am sorry if this is not the right place to ask this, I just figured who better to ask then the "addicted" modding community . You guys are all over these phones, and the Verizon folks in the stores just stare at me with a blank expression when I ask them about this stuff.

Again, thank you very much,
M

[drtdiver83]

would it be too much of a burden to carry a laptop with you and use your tp2 to tether. if that is ok then you would have everything you need.

[samshady]

I have to agree with drtdiver83. The touchpro would be able to do most of the things you want but being this is your business, do you want everything tied to one point of failure? I'd look at a netbook if size is really an issue for you.

[nxtech3]

i suggest getting a sprint aircard when you decide to do the netbook/laptop option

[piranah]

the tp2 will work best for ur needs.. android is not 100% business friendly, just yet.. im a stuudent and can edit papers, do powerpoint slides, and edit excel documents from my phone..so i think business wise, the tp2 is better, plus u got the sweet speakerphone

[aj48198]

ATM, based on what you have mentioned and whats available by your carrier, the TP2 is your best option. The thing that you have to be aware of is according to everything that you looking into doing on your phone, it sounds like you will be constantly connected to the internet, which will kill your battery, so carry a spare or two. If its possible, you could always change carriers, go with T-Mobile to get the HD2 which could help with processing everything, giving you fewer lock ups and resets. Nothing could be more embarrassing than having your phone lock up while processing someone's credit card. Its still giving you the WM features that you are use to along with more processing power. Plus you wouldn't need to have the lappy. Besides that, you have the right phone to complete the job if you plan on staying with your current carrier.

[Muldaak]

Wow, I'm rather shocked all replies so far is for the TP2. I thank you for your responses.

I suppose I should have explained the business situation a little more, just didn't think anyone would want to hear about it.

I will be in a truck all day basically. Pressure Washing buildings, houses, sidewalks, etc. I do have a home PC, which is where our main Quickbooks is located. I just needed to access it also in the truck incase something changes.

The maps are a huge part of what I need on the phone, so I hope they aren't too tough to get working on the TP2.

As far as a laptop, I will eventually go that way, but for the first year or two (perfect for the Verizon plan length) I shouldn't be that burdened with work to need one yet. But, yes, I will be going that way.

Again, thank you for your replies.

[aj48198]

Originally Posted by Muldaak

Wow, I'm rather shocked all replies so far is for the TP2. I thank you for your responses.

I suppose I should have explained the business situation a little more, just didn't think anyone would want to hear about it.

I will be in a truck all day basically. Pressure Washing buildings, houses, sidewalks, etc. I do have a home PC, which is where our main Quickbooks is located. I just needed to access it also in the truck incase something changes.

The maps are a huge part of what I need on the phone, so I hope they aren't too tough to get working on the TP2.

As far as a laptop, I will eventually go that way, but for the first year or two (perfect for the Verizon plan length) I shouldn't be that burdened with work to need one yet. But, yes, I will be going that way.

Again, thank you for your replies.

Maybe you should look into using the remote desktop on the phone to access your home computer. IMO it would be easier to access everything that way vs adding apps to the cell phone.

[[sammich]]

Moved to the Phone Comparison forum for increased viewing pleasure

[burtonsnow8]

Originally Posted by Muldaak

Wow, I'm rather shocked all replies so far is for the TP2. I thank you for your responses.

I suppose I should have explained the business situation a little more, just didn't think anyone would want to hear about it.

I will be in a truck all day basically. Pressure Washing buildings, houses, sidewalks, etc. I do have a home PC, which is where our main Quickbooks is located. I just needed to access it also in the truck incase something changes.

The maps are a huge part of what I need on the phone, so I hope they aren't too tough to get working on the TP2.

As far as a laptop, I will eventually go that way, but for the first year or two (perfect for the Verizon plan length) I shouldn't be that burdened with work to need one yet. But, yes, I will be going that way.

Again, thank you for your replies.

For one, I will say that you've come to a HTC forum with mainly WM users asking which device is superior. Don't be expecting the majority of us to say the Droid kicks our phones ass (which IMO it doesn't because they function differently).

I'll break it down based on what I know about each phone from playing around with them.

Keyboards:

TP2 is MILES and MILES BEYOND the droid. If you are going to be typing e-mails daily, you will love the tp2. I'm sure I could get use to the droid keyboard, but the top keys are so close to the screen its hard to type. I did have to take a day or two to get use to the roomy keys on my tp2 but I LOVE IT!



Browsers:

In terms of quickness, the droid has the tp2 beat. It loads the browser quicker, it loads the pages quicker, but it seems to load a web page in simpler view which doesn't give the feel of a desktop browser. My TP2 feels exactly like a desktop browser. I didn't mess with the droid's browser enough to see if there were other options, but the overall feel I got was that the droid was built for multimedia with the business functions as an afterthought.


All those programs should work on android or WM, so I will omit those comments and give an overview of both phones. Navigation is fine if you choose to purchase an application, the free ones seem to give awkward/round-a-bout directions.



Droid: VERY responsive. Load times are minimal (less than 1 second) and the phone just works. If the only thing you care about is the response time the droid wins. If you want full function, there are shortcuts android OS has taken to help improve performance. Home screen customization is nice, but once again for multimedia, not business.

WM: Load times can be up to 5 seconds for some applications (Opera Browser specifically). Browsers seem more robust with greater features over the built in droid browser. In terms of business this has everything you want with only a couple minor drawbacks (slower processing/multi tasking).