iPhone disappointment

[/dev/toaster]

I was really hoping the phone with have been on Verizon. Cingular is bottom of the barrel in terms of service, right along with T-Mobile.

I think Apple bad a pretty bad move here. Verizon or Sprint would have been a much better choice.

Oh well, guess I won't be buying one. (I am ordering an Apple TV as soon as the store is updated though)

 

[rogersmj]

I was really hoping the phone with have been on Verizon. Cingular is bottom of the barrel in terms of service, right along with T-Mobile.

I think Apple bad a pretty bad move here. Verizon or Sprint would have been a much better choice.

Oh well, guess I won't be buying one. (I am ordering an Apple TV as soon as the store is updated though)

I'm so sick of people saying this crap. What did you expect? If they made it Verizon or Sprint, that means it would available in the US only (and a small part of Asia). GSM is used by something like 80% of cell phone users worldwide, and Apple wants to make a global product.

 

[Sky Blue]

Hardly finished demo the product, and they're already complaining. Is it even locked down?

 

[~Shard~]

I'm surprised it took this long for the complaining to start...

What a revolutionary product. Once again Apple has set the bar so high that it will take years for the competition to catch up. The UI, the functionality, the simplicity, the intelligence, the design. How can you not like this? Top marks to Apple. The only possible downside in my opinion will be what the cost comes out at - because you know this thing ain't gonna be cheap.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Hardly finished demo the product, and they're already complaining. Is it even locked down?

Cingular has a 6 month exclusive on it. Which is very standard on new phones.

I don't care what the rest of the world uses, GSM is very crappy in the US. If you want realiable service, Cingular or T-Mobile is NOT the way to go.

I'm surprised it took this long for the complaining to start...

What a revolutionary product. Once again Apple has set the bar so high that it will take years for the competition to catch up. The UI, the functionality, the simplicity, the intelligence, the design. How can you not like this? Top marks to Apple. The only possible downside in my opinion will be what the cost comes out at - because you know this thing ain't gonna be cheap.

I don't care about the cost. I have been known to spend over $1500 for the newest phone out.

Soon as they said Cingular, I walked away from the computer in disgust. I turned away from the rest of the features. Until its available on a quailty carrier, I have little interest in it or its features.

I am sure it will be an amazing phone, but without quailty service what good is it ??

 

[j26]

I think Apple bad a pretty bad move here.

A bad move for who? You or Apple?
GSM is the standard, and unless Apple wanted to keep to a small market (the US) then it has to go GSM or 3G.

 

[/dev/toaster]

A bad move for who? You or Apple?
GSM is the standard, and unless Apple wanted to keep to a small market (the US) then it has to go GSM or 3G.

Bad for Apple ... in the US the phone is only as good as the network it is on. Cingular = Crap ... Bad for Apple.

 

[sikkinixx]

This makes me wanna kick myself for signing onto Telus for another 3 years (it's PCS provider here in Canada)....

I want all the other features though so depending on cost I might get one and use it sans phone functions...

 

[net26]

well, if it's on sale in europe provider-free, I'm ordering one today!

 

[rogersmj]

Looks like a CDMA version might be available in 2008, because Steve just said the iPhone will be available in Asia in '08. So you Verizon crazies might get one then.

 

[j26]

Bad for Apple ... in the US the phone is only as good as the network it is on. Cingular = Crap ... Bad for Apple.

Good for 80% of the world market that is on GSM networks. Sure a few people will avoid the network you are talking about, but the worldwide gain will more than offset the loss of some people in the US, and if more people come to the network, the service will improve.

It's a good move by Apple. It may not your personal choice, but for the company it's a good move.

 

[danny_w]

I don't care what the rest of the world uses, GSM is very crappy in the US. If you want realiable service, Cingular or T-Mobile is NOT the way to go.

That may be true where you are, but I have tried Verizon and Sprint and they have been the worst experience ever. When they work (and that is within 50 feet of a freeway) they are crystal clear (much better than GSM), but anyplace else and the signal (and reception) drop to 0. I really wanted to like CDMA. I really did. But in Austin Cingular is king, and works wherever you happen to be.

 

[Felldownthewell]

In Brick, New Jersey, Verizon may have better call quality. It differs not just per state but per town. Here in Portland, T-Mobile is crap, and Verizon and Cingular are equal, with Verizon having less coverage but less dropped calls, at least in my experiance.

This is unfortunate for you, but I'm sure you'll live without the latest and greatest if the call quality isn't up to scratch for you. If you need the iPhone, you will get it. If you don't need it you won't, but bashing a choice which makes business sense for a major FOR PROFIT company because you are pissed it isn't tailored to your exact needs is a bit pretentious. Get over it.

 

[Sdashiki]

Only way to shut up everyone:


make the phone for all carriers/systems


right?

but w/e, Cingular can have their "time in the sun"

 

[CEAbiscuit]

Actually kind of like it. Looking forward to rev.2

 

[Stratification]

I love the concept, but there's no way I'd switch networks for the phone. Especially since I've had trouble with Cingular in the past (yes I know others have had opposite experiences). I was just hoping Apple wouldn't tie it down to a particular network, by doing that you automatically narrow your market reach.

 

[rogersmj]

I love the concept, but there's no way I'd switch networks for the phone. Especially since I've had trouble with Cingular in the past (yes I know others have had opposite experiences). I was just hoping Apple wouldn't tie it down to a particular network, by doing that you automatically narrow your market reach.

I'm not entirely sure I would switch either, but fortunately I'm already on Cingular! It sounds like eventually Apple will make it available to other network operators, maybe a couple years down the road with the next revision.

I do feel for all of you who can't rely on Cingular service in your area. That sucks. The truth of the matter is, all cell phone providers suck, some just suck less than others in certain areas. Just like cable companies.

 

[aristobrat]

Cingular has a 6 month exclusive on it. Which is very standard on new phones.

I thought the keynote said "Apple and Cingular have a multi-year exclusive partnership."

Does that mean Cingular gets the device exclusively for several months over "multi-years", or that the device is exclusively on Cingular for multi-years?

 

[0098386]

aw, boo hoo. GSM=yey! Pity we have to wait till Q4, not that I'm buying one though. 8gb space? That's a little paltry.

 

[Hls811]

Cingular has a 6 month exclusive on it. Which is very standard on new phones.

Not sure where you got that from - right from the keynote: "multi-year exclusive partnership, only available from Cingular or Apple.

 

[aristobrat]

I was just hoping Apple wouldn't tie it down to a particular network, by doing that you automatically narrow your market reach.

I was too, but the part in the keynote where it said "Apple can be Apple and Cingular can be Cingular" sort of meant to me that Apple made a deal with Cingular where Apple can have the crazy control over the phone that they want. I bet that if Apple tried to shop the iPhone around to EVERYONE, they wouldn't have been able to make that "leave the devices to us" deal with ANYONE.

The truth of the matter is, all cell phone providers suck, some just suck less than others in certain areas. Just like cable companies.

Maybe it's just where I live, but it seems like all of the big carriers are adding coverage to their weak areas around here. Year after year, they're each shrinking their "crap" zones.

 

[/dev/toaster]

In Brick, New Jersey, Verizon may have better call quality. It differs not just per state but per town. Here in Portland, T-Mobile is crap, and Verizon and Cingular are equal, with Verizon having less coverage but less dropped calls, at least in my experiance.

This is unfortunate for you, but I'm sure you'll live without the latest and greatest if the call quality isn't up to scratch for you. If you need the iPhone, you will get it. If you don't need it you won't, but bashing a choice which makes business sense for a major FOR PROFIT company because you are pissed it isn't tailored to your exact needs is a bit pretentious. Get over it.

I am not just looking at Brick NJ, I am looking at all the places I have traveled this past year. I do travel quite a bit, and Verizon by far as the best overall coverage and quailty.

I would like to get the iPhone, however I won't deal with a poor quailty carrier. I am bashing Apples poor choice of carriers. Sure, some carriers shine in different markets. However, based on my experience and many others Verizon has the best overall quaility across the US. I am not interested in international markets nor do I care about them.

Cingular, T-Mobile, Boost, Virgin, etc are bottom of the barrel carriers. You get what you pay for. I was a previous customer of T-Mobile and I dropped them due to poor quailty across the US. I was also a customer of Nextel for a few years, great service but crap phones.

Premium carriers are Verizon, Sprint and Nextel. They are also more expensive, but again you get what you pay for.

Sprint would have been a much better choice for Apple. I would deal with downgrading to Sprint, but *NOT* all the way down to Cingular.

Yes, I am sure that Apple will do great with this new phone. However, they have limited them selfs.

Regarding the 6 month exclusive, I was mistaken on that. A multiyear exclusive is even worse, that is going to hurt them even more.

 

[jsw]

I am not just looking at Brick NJ, I am looking at all the places I have traveled this past year. I do travel quite a bit, and Verizon by far as the best overall coverage and quailty.

I've never had problems with either Cingular or T-mobile, with the exception of T-mobile a few years ago in central Illinois. I have no idea where you're getting the idea that Verizon is so much better. I can only assume you had crappy GSM phones with poor antennas.

I am not interested in international markets nor do I care about them.

Yes, but Apple does, as do its customers, so your bashing of GSM makes no sense. CDMA is a tiny market.

Yes, I am sure that Apple will do great with this new phone. However, they have limited them selfs.

As I'm sure you know, a CDMA phone and a GSM phone have vastly different internals, so they would have had to have chosen one or the other. Choosing CDMA initially would have been a stupid business choice.

 

[CEAbiscuit]

Aside from carrier issue (eveyone disagrees), my only concern is the amount of memory- 8 gig. How does one manage movies, music photos, email and everythin g else with that much memory? I know the answer is iTunes, but docking it constantlyn would be somewhat of a pain... maybe iTunes mobile? itunes.mobi anyone?

 

[aidanpendragon]

I'm a cell phone luddite who's firmly resisted getting one for years. But Steve had me sold on this from "widescreen iPod," even the idea of buying cell service and using it as such. Then he got to the price. ERRRRRT! OK, so it's worlds beyond the BlackBerry. But Amazon has BlackBerrys as low as 1 cent, or others around $100, with service plan. iPhone is $499-599 PLUS service plan? Yikes!

Plus, where do you talk in the damn thing? Do you have to use the headset? Not much of a "phone" if so.

BTW, a bit disingenuous to describe it as a widescreen iPod. That device is most obviously used for watching movies, but 8 GB?

On "Cingular is a bad provider": I believe that was the conclusion of Consumer Reports' national survey, which affirmed that Verizon, Sprint (and Nextel?) were the most reliable. So it's not just he-said-she-said anecdotes.