Hi,
I thought I'd post this as I have been an Apple user since 2001, there isn't really much Apple stuff I haven't bought or used in my time, and I have to say my experience with Apple has seen products improve incrementally over time. This post may be ill timed considering the imminent iPhone upgrade but I'm done with the iPhone or should I say iFad.
I may be posting in the wrong place, and be swamped by the fan boys, but I am a very Apple inclined person so would consider this post pretty unbias.
The reasons are such:
1.) The lag, every iPhone I have had is never fast enough. When I go to load up messages or emails it can take an age just to pull up the app. Not good when your in a rush. The keyboard is a real hate though, it often struggles to keep up when you first open up the keyboard and the spell correction consistently tries to change words which were correct to start with.
2.) The App Store...the amount of rubbish on there now is beyond a joke. I've stopped using the App Store not because I don't like it, I'm sure if I had a look I could find some absolute gems...only thing is, it would take about 2 hours to navigate. Also the amount of web apps dressed up as native apps is pointless. Apple is also doing a great job at getting an anti-competition case against itself with the endless moderation of the apps, restrictions, rejections etc....The apps are also going in the wrong direction imo, it is not a games device, it is a phone, innovate!!! Do not try and port console games to phone. I have 52 apps on my iPhone, of which I use about 5 regularly, and all are available on BlackBerry which offer the same if not more functionality. I can see why my 15 yo brother loves it, but for adults...seriously??
3.) No Flash...now this never bothered me. But what does bother me is Apple trying to send Flash to the wall. Flash powers some of the most innovative websites on the internet yet Apple's 'my way or the highway' attitude really niggles me....I guess it goes back to the competition thing. Kicking in doors and throwing law suits about like toys out of a pram really annoys me too, you wouldn't see Nokia do it, Samsung etc..but Apple seems to think they are special, even when human error is the source of their problems.
4.) Every teenager and chav has an iPhone now. The iPhone has lost it's class. I know Apple wants to boost sales but the iPhone has really lost it's flare. I use my iPhone for a lot of business use, but around colleagues I feel that the iPhone doesn't give off a sharp business image, but looks somewhat childish and amateur. Apple needs to capture the business world, adding Exchange Server is not enough, native editing support for industry documents .doc, .xls, .ppt,. pdf, native sharing of files via bluetooth too is much missed, Apple wants the business market it needs to fix this.
5.) They break too easily...I have broken 4 in two years from general wear and tear, things like the microphone packing up is just a nuisance.
6.) Over commercialised, in so many sense of the word. From apps in the app store which are essentially adverts for the respective companies, to the advertising inside free apps and most disappointingly the announced iAd. Ad's on a paid for device is disrespectful to the user.
7.) Lack of multitasking...however, it seems the new iPhone will allow multitasking in some way, but again links down to the Apple straight jacket on the device at the moment.
Then there are the small things that wind me up like lack of flash on the camera, looked down tethering, no bluetooth sync with Mac etc.
Honestly, I struggle how Apple can make the iPhone much better than it is. It's the not the product that lacks it's the attitude of the company. Yes' make it faster, better graphics, new screen, front mounted camera...but do what your so good at and lock it down, and then sell it as the best thing since sliced bread.
Whilst the iphone does some things brilliantly such as maps, internet, it is let down on the whole by what is not as such a fault of the device, but what feels like a changed, restrictive, autocratic Apple. Apple as we know has always been a secretive company, and that is some of the fun in following Apple. However, it feels like the company ethos has changed or developed this cynical side. It's now about locking stuff down, 'freedom from porn', killing Flash...the politics of the company and a certain ego seem to now have too much influence upon a brilliant device, the iPhone, than the innovation and changes from the norm which created it. I regret giving it up in some ways but I don't want to see myself counted as one of the many which allowed the iPhone to monopolise the smartphone world, and through it's self importance help destroy innovation and competition in the industry. I am swapping to a BlackBerry not just for a change but as a stand against what is now seeming in my mind into developing into a Bad Apple.
I thought I'd post this as I have been an Apple user since 2001, there isn't really much Apple stuff I haven't bought or used in my time, and I have to say my experience with Apple has seen products improve incrementally over time. This post may be ill timed considering the imminent iPhone upgrade but I'm done with the iPhone or should I say iFad.
I may be posting in the wrong place, and be swamped by the fan boys, but I am a very Apple inclined person so would consider this post pretty unbias.
The reasons are such:
1.) The lag, every iPhone I have had is never fast enough. When I go to load up messages or emails it can take an age just to pull up the app. Not good when your in a rush. The keyboard is a real hate though, it often struggles to keep up when you first open up the keyboard and the spell correction consistently tries to change words which were correct to start with.
2.) The App Store...the amount of rubbish on there now is beyond a joke. I've stopped using the App Store not because I don't like it, I'm sure if I had a look I could find some absolute gems...only thing is, it would take about 2 hours to navigate. Also the amount of web apps dressed up as native apps is pointless. Apple is also doing a great job at getting an anti-competition case against itself with the endless moderation of the apps, restrictions, rejections etc....The apps are also going in the wrong direction imo, it is not a games device, it is a phone, innovate!!! Do not try and port console games to phone. I have 52 apps on my iPhone, of which I use about 5 regularly, and all are available on BlackBerry which offer the same if not more functionality. I can see why my 15 yo brother loves it, but for adults...seriously??
3.) No Flash...now this never bothered me. But what does bother me is Apple trying to send Flash to the wall. Flash powers some of the most innovative websites on the internet yet Apple's 'my way or the highway' attitude really niggles me....I guess it goes back to the competition thing. Kicking in doors and throwing law suits about like toys out of a pram really annoys me too, you wouldn't see Nokia do it, Samsung etc..but Apple seems to think they are special, even when human error is the source of their problems.
4.) Every teenager and chav has an iPhone now. The iPhone has lost it's class. I know Apple wants to boost sales but the iPhone has really lost it's flare. I use my iPhone for a lot of business use, but around colleagues I feel that the iPhone doesn't give off a sharp business image, but looks somewhat childish and amateur. Apple needs to capture the business world, adding Exchange Server is not enough, native editing support for industry documents .doc, .xls, .ppt,. pdf, native sharing of files via bluetooth too is much missed, Apple wants the business market it needs to fix this.
5.) They break too easily...I have broken 4 in two years from general wear and tear, things like the microphone packing up is just a nuisance.
6.) Over commercialised, in so many sense of the word. From apps in the app store which are essentially adverts for the respective companies, to the advertising inside free apps and most disappointingly the announced iAd. Ad's on a paid for device is disrespectful to the user.
7.) Lack of multitasking...however, it seems the new iPhone will allow multitasking in some way, but again links down to the Apple straight jacket on the device at the moment.
Then there are the small things that wind me up like lack of flash on the camera, looked down tethering, no bluetooth sync with Mac etc.
Honestly, I struggle how Apple can make the iPhone much better than it is. It's the not the product that lacks it's the attitude of the company. Yes' make it faster, better graphics, new screen, front mounted camera...but do what your so good at and lock it down, and then sell it as the best thing since sliced bread.
Whilst the iphone does some things brilliantly such as maps, internet, it is let down on the whole by what is not as such a fault of the device, but what feels like a changed, restrictive, autocratic Apple. Apple as we know has always been a secretive company, and that is some of the fun in following Apple. However, it feels like the company ethos has changed or developed this cynical side. It's now about locking stuff down, 'freedom from porn', killing Flash...the politics of the company and a certain ego seem to now have too much influence upon a brilliant device, the iPhone, than the innovation and changes from the norm which created it. I regret giving it up in some ways but I don't want to see myself counted as one of the many which allowed the iPhone to monopolise the smartphone world, and through it's self importance help destroy innovation and competition in the industry. I am swapping to a BlackBerry not just for a change but as a stand against what is now seeming in my mind into developing into a Bad Apple.
