An iPhone Dialogue- "I hate my iPhone"

This is an online chat that I had with a friend this morning.  He has owned more smart phones than anyone that I know.

Name removed to preserve anonymity and protect his life.  The only editing done was to remove non iPhone parts of the conversation.

Friend
10:12

iPhone sucks!

david
10:13
Did you buy one?
Or just play with it

Friend
10:14
yep, i bought one day 1

David
10:14

I should have known
So the rumors that one in three Americans want one should be ignored?

Friend
10:15

No, we all wanted one day 1, but they should have done another poll on day 2 as to who wanted to give theirs back.

david
10:16

Interesting, what are the problems

Friend
10:16

Too numberous to mention, but mostly e-mail issues.
no select all, no delete all, no copy and paste

david
10:16

So not as good as a Blackberry?

Friend
10:16

no bcc,
multi-attachment e-mails show up as useless MIME documents rather than WORD, PDF or others it should be able to read.

david
10:17

Apple abandons copy and paste, how interesting
Doesn't sound like it is ready for the real world, but that is normal with Apple products
Remember the 128K Mac
I have had no desire to go out and get one so I am just an interested observer
I don't travel so much that I need email away from the desktop
Well I guess you can't send it back

Friend
10:18

send it back with a 10% restocking fee

On a scale of 1-10, here is my score:
Phone = 7 (nice voice quality and cool features)
Web = 8 (no java or flash) so much for the "real internet" from their ads
E-mail = 5 (soneone should be killed)
iPod = 11 (greatest iPod ever, but for $600 it should be!)

David
10:19

What about the camera?

Friend
10:20

Camera = 6 (good resolution, bad light sensitivity

david
10:28

How do you rate it compared to your latest Blackberry device?

Friend
10:30

I use a TREO 700p
Overall Ratings of all devices:
Blackberry = 6
Treo 700p = 8
Treo 700w = -5
iPhone = 6

david
10:31

Interesting

Friend
10:32

The iPhone isn't as useless as the 700w, but isn't as good as the 700p

david
10:32

Well thanks for the intel, iPhones are little rare down on the Crystal Coast

Friend
10:32

Blackbery gets docked for poor web display and limited storage space for all those attachment e-mails I need to read.

I bet

david
10:36

You mind if I remove your name and post an edited version of our conversation on Applepeels

Friend
10:36

Sure, edit away and post.  I hate my iPhone

Comments

[Al]

I haven't been following this blog.

Did Apple do something to really piss you off or do you just work for the competition?

With a 90% customer satisfaction rating, it must be hard to find someone to bitch about the iPhone.

I can't believe Apple's target customer is a high power, crackberry addict. Too many parts are still missing, even though they are all just a software update away.

I'll check back in a few months and see if you've taken the plunge or you still hate the iPhone by proxy.

[flint]

Your friend has the attention span of a gnat, the patience of a hungry dog and the staying power of a candle light in a hurricane..... so what's new in this world of instant self gratification.
He can't add up either. 7+8+5+11/4 = 7.5

[ocracokewaves]

Well I didn't go looking for anyone using an iPhone who either hated it or loved it.

I will admit to my friend being a demanding user.

As for his math skills, he might have been factoring in some other things. It was an online chat after all.

Perhaps the reason you folks are so sensitive is that there might be more than a grain of truth in what he said.

I don't know since I don't have an iPhone and don't plan to get one.

I am just reporting a conversation.

If you love the iPhone, don't let it get you down.

It is not exactly like my friend's opinion should make much difference to you if the iPhone is doing what you want it to do and you're happy with it.

[Mark Porter]

He probably has some good points. I reckon a lot of the kind of stuff he's talking about is intentional on Apple's part though - I don't think they're targetting the same kind of audience as the other devices he's used to,

[Bill]

Most people probably are happy with their iPhones, but your friend's comments are not unlike many that are appearing on the iPhone forums at places like howardforums and macosrumors. Quite a few Apple fans are disappointed with the iPhone; problems with email and complaints about low speakerphone volume and low earpiece volume seem the most common. As for me, I don't own one. I use a cell phone for two things: making calls and receiving calls, and I'm not paying $600 for that. If Apple made a phone that was purely a high-quality PHONE, and not a tricked-out multimedia device, this middle-aged guy would be all over it.

[Jack Mikov]

I hate my trio. When do I get to post the lame conversation about that? If you don't let me, your 4 readers will not see the value of such a great conversation!!!

[Pascale Soleil]

Have an iPhone, love it. Find it a joy to use, for the most part.

Definitely the Mail app needs improvement... but I expect that to happen pretty promptly.

I also expect numerous other software updates/refinements. (I'd like to be able to move pictures out of the Camera Roll, for example.)

Right now, the iPhone's not the ticket for someone who needs to do a lot of writing/editing.

But I don't miss Java/Flash AT ALL... the web's a much cleaner and more pleasant place without all that cruft and a lot less crash-prone too.

[Mike Bentley]

I didn't get an iphone because I thought the slooooow EDGE network would drive me crazy. We got my wife one, tho. She thinks its da bomb. I'm looking instead at getting a data card for the MBP17 for HSDPA.

[doug Petrosky]

Maybe people get sensitive or maybe your friend did not give the iPhone a fair shake? It is hard to say because people have such different needs.
I get down on the iPhone too when I don't put it in to proper context. I see the potential of the phone and compare it to what I wish it was and not to the other phones on the market.
If I rated the phone it would go something like this.
Phone - 9 (battery, signal strength, voice quality, UI, sync, etc. -1 for lack of search in contacts for now)
Web - 9 This is the first phone that can search the real web in a useful way, but the lack of java and flash do affect some sites.
E-mail - 7 Screen size and preview function allow for quick review of new mail and the ability to view word, excel, and PDF in a useful way give it some bonus points.
ipod - 11 ok so we did find common ground.

I also find it odd that so few people point out the fact that a black berry costs $25 more per month than an iphone.

Note: Posted on an iphone!

[Nick]

The tone seemed a little over-the-top to me, David.

"Name removed to preserve anonymity and protect his life."

This is the kind of thing "analysts" and "journalists" with rather close connections to Microsoft usually say. I don't see why the rest of us need to spread that view of things--that people who generally like Apple products are some sort of irrational cultists. You and I know they're not. (After all, this would include you, since you generally like Apple products.)

I think this image of the Apple "fan" who buys for irrational reasons is generally a cover, an excuse, and a ploy by which those analysts try to distract people from noticing that, right now, Apple products usually are pretty good, and what they'd prefer one to buy often can't really compete on merit.

It would have been more accurate if you'd said:

"Name removed to preserve anonymity and prevent his being besieged by people wanting to buy a second-hand unit."

But that would have spoilt the teeth in the piece, because it would have drawn attention to the fact that your friend is atypical. I've seen some of these emailing disadvantages touched on in iPhone reviews before. They seem pretty big drawbacks for people who do a lot of mobile emailing. The truth of the matter is, if someone wants a mobile emailing device he'd do better to buy a device that specializes in that. The iPhone does both less and more than that. That's true even of email: the Blackberry doesn't do HTML email and can't display images inline. It's true even more when one considers the device is also an iPod (with storage to serve that which dwarfs what any other smartphone has), is an internet device (with, to serve that, a screen that is far larger and with a much higher resolution than virtually anything else and that has twice the battery life of any other smartphone) and withal has a multi-touch interface.

If someone just wants to process lots and lots of email there are better choices (although some of this Apple may fix in software updates--something that's not true of other cellphones makers, who, at most, have occasional firmware updates that no one knows about and nobody applies.) But pure email is not what the iPhone is primarily about.

When I was a boy, adults used to say of someone who took too much food that his eyes were bigger than his stomach. Something similar seems to be true of your friend. (Lucky for him he's got the wallet to support that attitude.) That he bought something that didn't really fit his needs doesn't reflect badly on Apple who've made something that does fits many people's admirably.

[ocracokewaves]

Nick,

Unfortunately I would have to disagree with you.

The only reason that I continue to require approval for comments is that any time someone says something negative about Apple, the idiots do come out of the woodwork.

I got some vulgar, obscenity laced, personal attack comments on this post. I wish I hadn't because I don't like to read a word or two of them even to delete them.

As someone who worked for Apple, I can tell you that there are people in enterprise organizations who while they love Apple products have a personality that harms Apple's ability to be successful in that account. At best they can be said to have an irrational, blind love of Apple products. They typically refuse to acknowledge anything could be wrong with an Apple product, but when something is wrong they come up with unreasonable demands even for Apple.

Now perhaps people who say negative things about MS products also have this issue, I don't know.

I have said some negative things about Microsoft products (and some good things), but I have never received a personal attack over it.

Yet you can almost count on it when you publish something about Apple that isn't 100% glowing.

My friend is in the technology business and has had an off and on love affair with the Mac over the years.

I thought his opinion was interesting for two reasons.

One, I respect his technical knowledge. Not many people have actually used as many smart phones as he has.

Two, his opinion was different than most others.

While he said "I hate my iPhone" he did also say some good things about it.

He paid his money for his iPhone and he has his right to his opinion.

I have a policy of publishing all comments unless they use obscene words, are personal attacks, or demonstrate the fact that they haven't read the comments or post closely enough to know that their comment has already been addressed multiple times.

[Andy]

Bought my iPhone. I'd say he makes some good points. However, I don't demand that much of the email on it, so I wouldn't say I "hate" it. But, unlike most smart phones, the iPhone is easily updated. Things will improve. And expand. Say, like, the iPhone can become your remote control over Apple-TV via Wi-Fi. And so on.

But... the software really isn't the point at all, if you think a bit more broadly about it. It's the hardware. The first commercially successful multi-touch interface, that I can think of. What can we do with that? There's the idea above in just the Apple consumer space, but let's expand that.

Triple the size and improve on interaction with industrial controls?

In-the-field military applications?
Jeff Han's demo at TED can lead you down that path of battlefield information visualization (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65?gclid=COPct5nVro0CFSKOgQodYlBiuQ)

Speaking of visualization, scientific/industrial visualization could certainly make use of this. Free the scientist of thinking about the controls and let him dive into his data. 3-D oilfield models, 4-D climate/pollution models, chemical analysis..

The iPhone is running a version of OS X. Odds are, I'd say it's an early version of Leopard. Which means, the libraries to control multitouch interfaces would get released this fall, and then you're only missing the larger screens. Fill in the hardware blanks and allow devs to go crazy.

The iPhone isn't the wonder product. I'll bet that it is just the beginning.

[John Layer]

I use the iPhone for one reason: to get me LAID with the chicks.

My iPhone in the past couple of weeks has been indispensable to me bedding 6 (six) of the hottest chicks I've seen.

John Q. Layer

[michael]

Look at this way, your friend avoided dealing with Apple's so-called customer service. My MacBook is in Memphis for the third time since I bought in July.

The reason FSJ is funny is because its true. Deep down all (yes, all) Apple owners know that Apple hates its customers. The CrApple lap tops and phone prove the point.

[Tom]

As a guy with a house full of Macs, I've gotta say I love my iPhone. The tech is great, typing is surprisingly good, the browser is great, the battery life is fine, even EDGE is ok.

But what I'm really loving about this is how well it integrates with everything else I keep on my computers. Every new song gets synced to it. Every new photo, new bookmark, new appointment, new contact. I had an epiphany at the office when I was trying to describe photos I'd taken with my regular camera over the weekend to a colleague, then realized, wait, I have them with me on the phone!

This is getting close to the convergence I've been waiting for for years -- having all my 'stuff' with me all the time.

Sure, there's room for improvement on this thing, but unlike the two years I waited in vain for Sony Ericsson to update the firmware on my S710a, I fully expect Apple to be delighting me with improvements on a regular basis.

[phaedrus]

Given his rating system, i find it a bit over the top to give the iPhone 6 out of 10 (a passing grade by most standards) and says he hates it. Nevertheless, if he hates his iPhone, he must also hate his blackberry and detest have his Treos as well -- Frankly even the Treo he likes only score marginally better that the iPhone. It appears he has very high expectations of smart phones that have yet to be met

And as for his criticisms, while somewhat valid; it is like somebody hating a Mini Cooper because it doesn't work as well of road as a Hummer.

[Dave]

So... If your pal hates the iPhone, ask him if he'd be willing to sell it to me :) I am looking for a used one. I design user interfaces and would love to have one for research and to test mobile content on.

My email has never worked, and for some reason, the mac store can't get it to go as well. I'm bummed to have to return it.
I also get more dropped calls than ever before.
I still like the phone keeping in mind I know they will improve these issues.

[Poster]

it is true the phone is not what its hyped up to be
no copy and paste
no group text
no forwarding text messages
no horizontal text
battery life is horrible, i have to walk around with the charger.. if apple took care of these issues it would actually be a decent phone.

[izabella]

oh my gosh, i hate my iphone..had it for about 2-3 months..doesnt have the features it should...i need zoom, video, record, god this phone sucks..

[Kathie]

I HATE MY IPHONE !!!!!
I absolutely LOVED the Curve.
Iphone is unreliable and sucks for my needs.
Guess I'll have to switch and pay for this stupid phone...What a waste of money.