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iPhone 4S - Not Apple's finest hour

elgrecomac

elgrecomac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
1,163
162
San Diego
With much anticipation Apple released the iPhone 4S a few weeks ago but since then, customers have encountered several significant issues: Siri outages, battery consumption, poor call quality. This makes antenna-gate seem tiny by comparison.

Now Apple clearly anticipated the excitement and pent-up demand for the 4S but from an engineering and infrastructure standpoint, well, it has not been Apple's finest hour.

As a long-time Apple customer (iPad2, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro plus phones and computers for my family) I am a concerned. This was Tim Cook's first product that was 'his' and I seriously hope he is kicking a$$ and taking names a la Steve Jobs.

You can sell cool technology all you want but it needs to work as advertised or it WILL negatively effect your business and allow competitors an opening.

:eek:
 
elgrecomac said:
With much anticipation Apple released the iPhone 4S a few weeks ago but since then, customers have encountered several significant issues: Siri outages, battery consumption, poor call quality. This makes antenna-gate seem tiny by comparison.

Now Apple clearly anticipated the excitement and pent-up demand for the 4S but from an engineering and infrastructure standpoint, well, it has not been Apple's finest hour.

As a long-time Apple customer (iPad2, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro plus phones and computers for my family) I am a concerned. This was Tim Cook's first product that was 'his' and I seriously hope he is kicking a$$ and taking names a la Steve Jobs.

You can sell cool technology all you want but it needs to work as advertised or it WILL negatively effect your business and allow competitors an opening.

:eek:
Click to expand...

Not sure if you have a different 4S than I but mine has been a welcome improvement over my Last Android and Palm phones.
 
elgrecomac said:
With much anticipation Apple released the iPhone 4S a few weeks ago but since then, customers have encountered several significant issues: Siri outages, battery consumption, poor call quality. This makes antenna-gate seem tiny by comparison.

Now Apple clearly anticipated the excitement and pent-up demand for the 4S but from an engineering and infrastructure standpoint, well, it has not been Apple's finest hour.

As a long-time Apple customer (iPad2, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro plus phones and computers for my family) I am a concerned. This was Tim Cook's first product that was 'his' and I seriously hope he is kicking a$$ and taking names a la Steve Jobs.

You can sell cool technology all you want but it needs to work as advertised or it WILL negatively effect your business and allow competitors an opening.

:eek:
Click to expand...

did you copy this from somewhere? it starts like a journalists review...then it gets personal.

i highly doubt this was Tim Cook's project. The plan for the 4S was probably locked in place for at least 6 months...meaning that SJ had some influence on it.

We probably won't have TC's first product, with his vision and execution, for several years.
 
Same here. Mine has been a welcome improvement over my 3GS.

And OP, you might want to check your facts. While this was Tim Cook's first ANNOUNCEMENT of a product, the 4S isn't truly his first product. It's well-documented that Jobs was already working on the iPhone 5 right up until the days before his death. It stands to reason, then, that he was well-involved with the 4S.

Because of that, even the 5 won't be Tim Cook's first iPhone. That will be the 6 or 5S.

BTW, you're basing this opinion on what? What you read here? You should understand that people come to forums such as this to moan and complain. Very rarely do you see someone post a "I love my 4S!" thread. The posts you see here aren't completely representative of the entire iPhone 4S user base or experience.
 
Vermifuge said:
Not sure if you have a different 4S than I but mine has been a welcome improvement over my Last Android and Palm phones.
Click to expand...

You may be the lucky one with a problem free phone. There are multiple threads on both Apple and McRumours about call quality, and Battery life.

Apple has acknowledge the second issue and will undoubtably eventually ack the first.

Hopefully they are software issues that a new release can resolve.
 
Not an issue really...

Of the millions of phones sold the first weekend, there are a few that are having problems. It's not the end of the world, people are just far more vocal when it doesn't work than when it does. Apple will iron things out shortly.

And as it was mentioned, Siri is still in beta. Google has ruined the meaning of that word with their "permanent betas". Siri will get better as time goes on.
 
I disagree. Apple fixed the antenna on the 4S, and delivered a great product. The battery issue is a software bug, and Apple acknowledged it a lot more quickly than they did last year's antenna issue. A fix is on the way (developers already have it for testing).

Siri is beta, and Apple has been upfront about it. There's a reason they didn't make it available to everyone (e.g. iPhone 4 or iPad 2 users), and why it is limited to 3 languages. It's a work in process.

There are definitely some issues to work out, to be sure. I'd like to see the ability to toggle 3G on and off, for instance. However, the kind of issues with this release are the kind we see with any large scale product release.
 
elgrecomac said:
As a long-time Apple customer (iPad2, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro plus phones and computers for my family) I am a concerned. This was Tim Cook's first product that was 'his' and I seriously hope he is kicking a$$ and taking names a la Steve Jobs.


:eek:
Click to expand...

If rumors are true about Steve Jobs leaving 4 years of new products, then we won't see anything "Tim Cook" until five years.

I hate doom and gloom threads like this.
 
Mine has been fine. So a few siri issues (beta) who cares. My battery has been great too. This is just a very tiny few with complaints, and as always, Apple will release updates soon to resolve.

Not selling my Apple stock anytime soon!

:apple:
 
To be honest, no-one's perfect, but Apple comes pretty damn close. Of the millions of iPhone 4S units that have been shipped, a very small minority of them are experiencing hardware issues. Mass production is bound to result in a small portion having problems.

The battery life issues should hopefully be fixed with 5.0.1's public release (I'm testing the beta, which has improved the standby life tremendously, but the actual use drain hasn't changed much).

As with the iPhone 4 (and despite its shortcomings), I'm expecting the iPhone 4S to top customer satisfaction ratings once again.
 
Although the battery life on my 4S totally sucks, and I can't imagine this being an iOS 5 issue (because my wife's iPhone 4 with iOS 5 does have this problem), the worse 4S atrocity that CAN:' be fixed is the meager 3.5" screen. I'm almost embarrased to have it now. And i wouldn't if it wasn't for the 64 GB, which is awesome to have.

Tony
 
Well let's see...

Siri outages are hardly significant. It's cool, it's fun, it's beta. EVERYONE can live without it occasionally.

Battery consumption "issues" are significant, to a relative handful of ubergeeks on a handful of ubergeek forums. Of 4 million sold, we are the vocal minority.

Poor call quality? Even on this forum, that hasn't been a hot topic.

"This makes antenna-gate seem tiny by comparison."

That's just plain hyperbole. Antennagate was based on a fact; that the antenna was poorly designed. And Apple tried to pass it off as nothing, until they caved. Much more widespread, much more publicized. Tiny compared to a Siri outage and some battery problems? Hardly.

People read so much Gizmodo, they start to think and talk that way. Sensationalist claptrap.
 
Its a work tool. I need Bluetooth for the car and push for work emails, but have turned off (some) location services. I don't play games, but I do email and browsing and phoning and texting. The 4S seems to go 2 days cf the 3GS's 1 day for similar usage.

Pure anecdote, but it does seem to find and hold signal better than my old 3GS. Have had it side by side with a colleague's IP4 (same network) and it seems better at finding signal than that too.

Was hoping for a slightly bigger screen and a more robust (LiquidMetal?) case, but have found a nice leather jacket instead.

May not be Apple's finest hour, but the 4S seems to be a decent phone, so far.
 
My 4S has been excellent. The battery may not last quite as long but still have 50% left after the day.

I remember all the bitching when the iPhone 4 came out.:p I have no doubt that Siri AND the battery will get better with time.

Some just got to complain. Haters will always hate.:p
 
elgrecomac said:
With much anticipation Apple released the iPhone 4S a few weeks ago but since then, customers have encountered several significant issues: Siri outages, battery consumption, poor call quality. This makes antenna-gate seem tiny by comparison.

Now Apple clearly anticipated the excitement and pent-up demand for the 4S but from an engineering and infrastructure standpoint, well, it has not been Apple's finest hour.

As a long-time Apple customer (iPad2, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro plus phones and computers for my family) I am a concerned. This was Tim Cook's first product that was 'his' and I seriously hope he is kicking a$$ and taking names a la Steve Jobs.

You can sell cool technology all you want but it needs to work as advertised or it WILL negatively effect your business and allow competitors an opening.

:eek:
Click to expand...

As with everyone else, I disagree. Last I checked, the phone sold REALLY well. Siri is in beta. My battery works fine. I game intensively and still end up with about 30 to 50% at the end of the day without charging. Those with battery problems will get a patch soon. Lastly my voice quality on my phone is awesome.
 
I switched from Blackberry.... I was a loyyyal BB chick! Until i got an ipod touch and knew then that an iphone was better than my sorry BB. Battery pulls multiple times a day, slow as molasses web and everything, constant hanging- the phone royally sucked. My 4s rocks my socks off just as my ipod touch did (does). I have battery life issues too but Im still ecstatic about my phone. It actually WORKS and i have never had to restart it since i opened the box on Oct 14.
 
MiRod407 said:
If rumors are true about Steve Jobs leaving 4 years of new products, then we won't see anything "Tim Cook" until five years.

I hate doom and gloom threads like this.
Click to expand...

Not a doom and gloom thread. Just a surprising number of issues of Apple' (now) flagship product.

----------
Stealthipad said:
My 4S has been excellent. The battery may not last quite as long but still have 50% left after the day.

I remember all the bitching when the iPhone 4 came out.:p I have no doubt that Siri AND the battery will get better with time.

Some just got to complain. Haters will always hate.:p
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm not a doom and gloomer nor a 'hater'. Hell, I own about $20,000 worth of apple products.
 
elgrecomac said:
Hey, I'm not a doom and gloomer nor a 'hater'. Hell, I own about $20,000 worth of apple products.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt it. If you did, you'd KNOW Apple and you wouldn't be calling this "Tim Cook's first product that was 'his''. That just reeks of lack of understanding about Apple.
 
I like my 4s. It's the improvement I was looking for from the 3gs. The screen is a lot better and so is the reception. Camera is quite good for snap shots. Battery lasts 2 days for me, I had to charge the 3gs every night. I couldn't be happier.

When talking about complainers keep in mind that very few people actually come to a forum to say that everything is as they expectet - most of them complain.
 
OP you have to understanding the first thing about such "forums" is that most of the posters sign up only when they have a problem, so 99% of the posters will be people who are facing an issue... But they are just a small fraction of the user base...

People who do not have a problem do not tend to hunt down a forum and post how happy they are... They are just engrossed in their enjoyment and happiness... :D
 
j4zb4 said:
OP you have to understanding the first thing about such "forums" is that most of the posters sign up only when they have a problem, so 99% of the posters will be people who are facing an issue... But they are just a small fraction of the user base...

People who do not have a problem do not tend to hunt down a forum and post how happy they are... They are just engrossed in their enjoyment and happiness... :D
Click to expand...

So what ignore the fact that every gadget site is talking about all these problems?
 
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