Hi everyone.

I need advice for a new cell phone. I currently own an unlocked Japanese Sharp cell phone, but it's been 5 years now and time to upgrade. I also own a pocket PC and my goal is to merge the two into one, so I just have one item to carry with me.

So far, I've been doubting between getting an Iphone 3G or a Windows Mobile 6.x touch screen cell phone. Here's an overview of my needs, from most important to nice-to-have. As I live in Europe but often go to Japan, you'll see my needs are geared towards that:

1. Absolute necessities (deal-breakers)
- Being able to use the phone with a SIM card
- Being able to use the phone both in Europe and Japan (3G where available, otherwise being able to use Europe's GSM network and Japan's W-CDMA network, for maximum coverage)
Possibility to sync with MS Outlook 2007 (Calendar and contacts. E-mail and tasks is nice-to-have. E-mail pushing not necessary but also nice-to-have)
- Support for both Japanese text as well as English for reading as well as input in SMS, MMS, e-mail and contacts touch screen

2. Very important (might be a deal-breaker)
- Being able to change OS language from English to Japanese and vice-versa, preferably on-the-fly
- Being able to consult my DVD and Blu-ray collection:[li]

Quote:
° DVD is on collectorz.com Movie Collector, which have software to consult both on Windows Mobile and Iphone
° Blu-ray is on DVD Profiler, which is read-only available on Windows Mobile but will be available in the future on Iphone with also editing possibilities[/li]

- Alarm function
- good quality screen
- possibility to expand storage capacity (for example, with SD memory card), to store more data such as pictures and so on

3. Like to have (but not a deal-breaker)
- Possibility to easily customize look of OS (wallpaper, themes, icons, ringtones, etc)
- Widgets (dictionary, weather forecast, exchange rate, etc)
- possibility to listen to MP3's
- possibility to take & watch pictures

4. Nice-to-have
- possibility to watch movie trailers or digital copies of Blu-rays (.mp4)
- possibility to consult text-documents (Word or .txt)
- possibility to use spreadsheets (XL or other)

I am far from being an expert in the matter, but as you can see, my goal is to merge the functions of my cell phone with those of pocket PC and keep only one device I can carry with me.

From what I've gathered so far, a 2nd generation Iphone (3G) would possibly suit my most important needs but as I'm not tech savvy on these matters, all info or feedback is welcome.

One additional question: my Pocket PC can easily be customized with themes. Is the same true for Windows Mobile cell phones? How about the Iphone?

And finally, if you suggest I get a Windows Mobile cell phone, which brand/model would be a good one?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can give me!