It’s a tricky question but the jerk we call Steve Jobs has made it so easy for me to say no:
- Fixing stuff isn’t a feature: I’m more than pissed about the recessed headphone jack. I had to go out and buy a $10 adapter because Steve said it was the best and only way–it had to be done to make sure the headphone jack survived. Whoops, second gen comes out and it’s back to normal?
- AT&T isn’t worth the hassle: These guys are using Steve as much as they can. Sure, they helped him bring it to the market but they’re milking this deal more than anything (upping the data plan rate?!). The lock-in is bad enough, but now taking away the activation via iTunes? It’s like saying “look how cool and flexible we are–whoa whoops, no we aren’t!”. Plus, I moved away from AT&T for a reason…
- 3G / GPS are silly: I don’t need a super speed connection on my phone. I always have a computer near me–if I really need to sit down and look at some serious web pages then a) I can wait the extra few seconds, or b) I can go use a computer. GPS? The phone already does killer location via towers or wifi–too gimmicky!
- The price: I’m not going to spend a few hundred dollars every few years on a phone when my current one is already (paraphrasing Steve) “lightyears” ahead of the competition. I’m ahead of the curve (Blackberry pun?) and figure that my $200 will be worth over $3,000 dollars at retirement, haha.
But seriously, as great as the devices are it’s so hard to keep doing this to people. Steve is evil and people love him. Microsoft is trying so hard to be nice and people still hate it….
1. You’re right…fixing isn’t a feature
2. Yeah the lock-in sucks, but that’s just the nature of the mobile world these days. But as for activation? You activate it once, and that’s it really…is it really that much of a problem?
3. Yeah 3G and GPS NOT silly. 3G means that a lot of the things that normally take forever on the iPhone (email fetching, websites, etc.) take considerably less time. Beyond that, you spend half the time, sucking the same amount of battery power…so effectively you’re getting much better battery life out of the 3G speed.
GPS is about accuracy. Cell tower triangulation is fuzzy at best, not to mention might only get you within a few miles of accuracy. The only way you can get more accurate is if you’re in a very densely populated area with a lot of WiFi signal around for the Skyhook crap to work. GPS throws all of that out of the equation and you get an exact location immediately. This is great for not only Google Maps, but other location-based apps…like OmniFocus’ planned location based reminders (which is killer)
Also, think location based sound profiles…such as if you’re at work, it goes silent, and when you’re out and about it’s loud, etc.
4. $200 will get the phone in the hands of many people…it’s a great piece of technology. It’s a super fast computer, iPod and phone all wrapped into one with a killer user interface.
Yeah, but all of which is my own opinion and just that ;)
Hey I love the commentary and discussion. To your point:
– My battery life is pretty tremendous and only ONCE have I ever had it drain on me (unintentionally). Again, the few extra seconds for e-mail and stuff aren’t as important to me I suppose.
– For all my intents the triangulation has been enough to get me a quick pin-point. When I’m in the mountains, not so good, okay, but I’ve survived without my exact location being known. (I don’t intent to use OmniFocus but agree that’s kinda sweet).
– I just use the little switch on the side of my phone to go vibrate / sound. ;)
Overall I agree, the market is what it is (lousy) and the technology is awesome (almost a laptop replacement for me, at times). But, all that said, first generation is good enough for me! ;)
The only thing that I really liked hearing was the 3G. Sometimes I just don’t have a computer near me and need to check something online. Speed is a good thing.
I was pretty upset to not hear copy & paste mentioned.
Oh yeah, but instead we got …. scientific calculator! No note sync, no todo sync, nothing really useful.
Can you imagine the UI challenge for C&P though? It’s not even possible to select text!
I’m using the original iPhone. I travel a lot for work and it’s been a life saver, particularly being able to pull up google maps quickly and being able pinch and pull the maps. Short of getting a personal GPS device, this hits the spot. The selling point for me was the $20 data plan with 200 SMS messages. I’m too turned off by the 3G iPhone data plan of $30 without SMS.