Ah, the iPhone. What a wonderful and glorious bit of technology. I first got onto the iPhone train with a 3G, and it was love at first sight. I became an app god (in my eyes), and blasted out emails and tweets from everywhere.
I still do, but after using iPhones for coming up on two years, I am ready to cut the cord. There has been so much discussion of numerous aspects of the iPhone, especially the App Store, that a fresh look at the total phone experience is in order.
I deal with my iPhone all day, every day. So, even though I am no noted Apple expert, my perspective here is a fair one. I have a suspicion that I am not alone in my sentiments. Actually, I am positive. Read the tech blogosphere, a large number of people are leaving.
To begin, the iPhone is a terrible phone. That is, the call quality is worse than my first flip phone (sans built-in camera!). It drops about a third of my calls, and refuses to find any service quite often. It is annoying to have to put the phone into and out of airplane mode just to make a phone call.
The longer that I have had my two iPhones (the first one did this when I dropped it), the worse they have become. Snappy at first, they both began to lag and catch. My current iPhone is so slow, that to just open text messages takes on the order of ten seconds. Try that 15 times a day, especially after you just took it out of airplane mode to get service, just to read the text you missed.
It’s damn annoying, and for the amount of money that I paid for the phone and continue to pay for the service, I don’t think it’s fair. I pay premium to get premium; they are not keeping up with their half of the deal.
It gets even worse if you have a good deal of data on your iPhone. I had to pull most of the music from it, just because it lagged all the worse when it was loaded with gigabytes of tunes. Metallica stayed, but most of the Nas had to go. It was a bit flapping to have a device that seemed almost capable of doing so much, but was so flawed that it fell just short nearly everywhere.
What took Apple so long in bringing search to the built in email application? It was a fun time there for a year or so, always having to boot the browser, just to do an email search. Here is a little tip, non searchable email is worthless. The iPhone almost does so many things well.
The on-screen keyboard is also a laggy inaccurate bit of work. It still thinks that when I want to type “hell” I really meant “he’ll,” even after I have told it not to do so for 18 months. That is a lot of times saying no thank you, only to have it just keep on, keepin’ on.
These may seem like small things, but are just a sample of the pet peeves that the iPhone has. The moment you lose the mentality that simply because it is an iPhone, it is perfect, the phone will bug you more by the day.
I have submitted apps to the app store, and have had them rejected for ridiculously negligible reasons. And that is my final complaint, the last straw. My good developer friend called me out on this a while back: “how can you still support a platform that abuses developers as much as Apple does?” I had to think about that.
It really came to me, the App Store does have some gems in it to be found no where else, but the way that apps are let in, and kept out programs, is something that I cannot support. It is unfair, and supports a very walled garden. Two things I dislike.
Mulling over all of my complaints, which are only exacerbated by the lack of approved tethering, and the high price of Apple’s peripherals, I made my choice. This means that I am going to move away from the iPhone when my contract expires, if not before. Odd, I am the type of person who is supposed to be the hardest core iPhone fanatic, and I am so tired of the hardware/software that I have tufts of hair about my chair.
I am not alone Apple. Get your act together, and fix your phones.
“It still thinks that when I want to type “hell” I really meant “he’ll,” even after I have told it not to do so for 18 months. ”
Seriously, shouldn’t there be an accessible editor/dictionary for iphone autocomplete?! not to mention every T9 entry phone I’ve ever owned. They will probably ‘fix’ the issues by making the software “learn” your typing style… but I don’t think that’s enough.
This shouldn’t even be an app. It should be in the OS!!!
Enter Droid. Enough Said.
I think the worst part is how they continue to screw developers. You can’t extend the functionality of the phone, only write these stupid little apps in a sandbox. I prefer Blackberry and Android for building serious apps, Apple can keep iFart. I and my development team have moved on.
You are not alone. My virtual keyboard sometimes locks up, taking no input until phone is reset, and sometimes the delete keys sticks until there is nothing left to delete.
Worst yet lately the phone has begun flashing incessantly: This accessory was not made to work with iPhone, turning off audio until reset –this, even though the phone has nothing not Apple-supplied. Nor does turning on airplane mode, as recommended, consistently solve the problem.
All these difficulties started 20 months into my contact. Tech support said either pay $200 to fix or pay $200 for a new iPhone. Only one more month left to go on my contract.
..me too Alex… I had every iPhone from the first all the way to the 3GS. But now, I can no longer support a device that I buy, and I pay a monthly service fee, yet someone else tells me what info and services I can and cannot install/access. So now I have a Droid, and I love it. It is a great phone on a great network. The only drawback is that it doesnt have that many great apps yet. But I can wait for that. After all, I waited 3 years for cut and paste, MMS, and tethering. Well, wait… iPhone users are still waiting for tethering.
I have to be honest though, I have not experienced any of the problems you describe. I have about 14GB of music with no problem, no lagging on the keypad, and no problem loading messages. I do sort of agree with phone service, with bluetooth or wired headset I don’t think it’s bad – honestly I don’t talk on my phone that often. The app store approval is a huge issue, that’s pretty obvious to anyone who follows technology. Anyway, competition and complaints..err.. constructive criticism… are good for the platform.
As soon as I can get a good Android phone with multitouch in CanuckLand I am switching over too.
Unfortunately I don’t have the issues either (though I’m now on the 3GS – have had all 3, iPhone, iPhone 3G, and now 3GS). I don’t have coverage issue either, but I’m in Alaska so there isn’t near as much cell-network usage going through towers as some places in the lower 48 have. Plus the market up here is either AT&T or local companies.
I’m still using my 1st Generation iPhone and have had none of the problems you refer to. Besides a dropped call now and then, which as much as no one seems to realize, happens on every network.
I’m using iPhone in Central Europe. None of the network issues exist, as 3G coverage here is probably better than AT&T ever had in the States (I must say, USA sucks when it comes to 3G coverage) and except the stupid word replacement and AppStore I don’t have any problems with it. I just use it as a mobile web device with a built-in iPod and the only reason I didn’t get a Touch was that carrying both phone and Touch would make my pocket too full. ;)
I’m absolutely with you here. iPhone is a fantastic idea poorly implemented.
As a web device it works pretty well given the limitations of screen and keyboard.
But as a phone and camera it’s absolute crap.
Apple really should be doing a better job of those bits
I got my 1st iphone the day the 3GS came out. I absolutely love this phone. I have had none of the issues you state above. Sure I drop the occassional call, but that happens on all cellular networks with all phones. I have a ton of music on it and no issues at all with that. The only time I ever have issues with lag on email is on Edge, which is very rare. I just think people have very unrealistic expectations that a cell phone should be as clear and reliable as a wired house phone and that just isn’t possible with current technology.
I loathe my iPhone 3G S. It’s an extension of my office phone, and since I’m rarely in the office, I’m on it for something 6 to 10 hours a day. I switched due to a biking accident which deluged my old 8525 Windows Mobile phone (pre HTC Touch-flow), and I have to say that other than the finger touch interface, my Windows phone did everythig the iPhone does better, albeit with much less storage capacity.
While I don’t have the gripes that you have, many are based around the phone. The antenna is weaker than my WM, I find myself with 1 bar where my old phone would get 3, the phone is too quiet for me to comfortably hear a conversation, and might as well forget the speakerphone is even there. And call quality is not as good as my Windows Mobile phone either. (The Cingular 8525 was an HTC Hermes 100.)
Warning: Here comes the rant: I could type faster on my old phones keyboard, and the apostrophy key on the iPhone has quit (hence none on “phones” above) and even Apple support couldn’t get it back on. I hate the fact that the App Store will not shut up about the 4 apps I will not update, since the updates break the apps. I hate that the memory bogs down every day with normal use of remote connection apps, such as LogMeIn, RDC Client, and VNC. I hate that I cannot utilize a cell data connection while on a phone call like I used to. Maybe that’s because we have no 3g. But my WM phone could – even on Edge. I hate that Safari goes into a “panic” mode on some websites on Edge, and I can’t get the browser back even after restarting the phone. It happened last when I was looking up some tires on the Monro site during an oil change. I hate that I can’t use Flash sites. Claim memory usage or standards enforcement, but flash is so common on the web, it’s practically a standard. Besides, my WM with 32 mb of ram could view and use flash, why can’t the flippin iPhone? Finally, I hate the HORRIBLE battery life. I didn’t need an extended battery with my 8525, but I can’t make it through a work day without plugging in the iPhone. Every time I’m stationary for 10 minutes, it gets plugged in. I almost bought an external battery/case, but I think I’ve spent enough on this crappy phone just gettig the apps I need to work on a daily basis that were free on the old WM. And I won’t mention the workarounds I’ve done to get iTunes to work on 64-bit Windows 7, and to sync my phone with my work and home computers.
In short, I have never regretted a technology purchase as much as I do buying the 32GB 3G S. This is my first iPhone, and I have 18 months left on my contract. I won’t make this mistake again. I won’t own another iPhone. I think I’ll ditch the iPods too (didn’t buy them, they were free – Netgear 4th quarter promo – got a Shuffle (with buttons) and a 4th gen Nano) and replace with the ZuneHD.
Oh. and there goes alex again.
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It still thinks that when I want to type “hell” I really meant “he’ll,” even after I have told it not to do so for 18 months. That is a lot of times saying no thank you, only to have it just keep on, keepin’ on.
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Alex, did you try to take that off? Like going to Settings->General->Keyboard and Auto-correction off? I did that and I am not bothered with iPhone trying to correct my English (or another language).
@lukebuchanan Yes, it is in the OS and you don’t need an app for that.
Part of the iPhone problem is the network, not just the iPhone itself. Yes, opening the text messages inbox is a bit slower (on my 3G version), typing sometimes lags…but I very rarely had dropped calls (it’s probably the region I am living that it doesn’t have the congestions other regions/cities have).
You have to understand that ATT didn’t expect iPhone to have such a huge success and their network to be so congested suddenly. In my country, the equivalent of ATT was better that ATT…yet, when the Christmas and New Year came the networks always had problems keeping up. They didn’t fix this just for several days of heavy traffic (probably wasn’t worth it).
The same can be applied to ATT, except this fix isn’t for several days but for all days…and that takes money and time (you can’t just throw cell towers like you throw a stone). iPhone was innovative, not just for us, the consumers, but for the networks as well. That’s why Verizon rejected a deal with Apple first time. They didn’t want to take a risk which ATT did.
Now you see the results: the smartphones field is changed forever and ATT is taking heat because its network couldn’t keep the pace. Do you think Verizon would be in a different position had it got iPhone first on its network? The coverage is better on Verizon but would it hold against the heavy traffic iPhone would had brought?
These small problems doesn’t make me leave iPhone…I tried a phone from Nokia (being a long time Nokia fan) and I understand why iPhone had and still have success: no smartphone beats it yet on the usability field (not even Droid…yet). For the consumer (and I am not talking about bloggers and other tech savvy persons which are a tiny market), that’s a big plus.
In time, ATT would improve their network…and Iphone would be available on other networks too.
@Rob, yep, we expect tinnovative hings to be perfect every time. Well, it’s not the case. I’m wondering how the Blackberry first generation or even third generation was? (and that was an innovative product as well). Was it perfect?
As technology overall improves, specific products improves along…that’s the case of Iphone and that’s the case of MANY products.
By the time you end you contract a new iPhone will come out…a better one.
As other have said, in one word: Droid.
Seriously.
I logged onto the Sesame Street website to get some games for my toddler, and Elmo summed it up best: F is for Flash. That, for me, is the single biggest gripe. I cannot believe that Apple is still unwilling to allow Flash functionality is emblematic of their attitude toward consumers. They still appear to be of the mindset that crappy windows mobile is their only competition, but I think Android will eat their lunch. While it is great to have 30 percent of web on my phone, I want the rest. I have not only fallen out of love with my 3G, I have lost a huge amount of respect for Apple as well.
Download “Find My Android” from Android Market. This app can locate and track your lost phone. Read all about it here: http://www.aarondream.com