iPhone disappointment

[savanahrose]

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.

I guess it all depends on where you live. According to Verizon I live very close to a tower of theirs but yet I can not get service at my house.
I could with cingular, but it was sketchy in other areas.

I went with Verizon because of the customer service, but I use the phone more than I talk to customer service.

I didn't know that I would have problems with using at my home.

 

[benfilan]

well...

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

there are other countries. you know this, right? not to be snappy, but europe, asia, australia, etc etc, all operate GSM, its the US thats behind in terms of network. so get over it.

also, i commented earlier that the iphone sucked, i take it all back, i am an idiot. its beautiful, i want it, i want it. i just dont want to have to wait months and months for it

 

[~Shard~]

Not one to normally making sweeping generalisations but that is such a typical statement for an American to make.

You're right, that is a pretty poor statement - narrowminded and selfish.

"I don't care about anyone else, just myself." Nice...

 

[Kukamunga]

Not one to normally making sweeping generalisations but that is such a typical statement for an American to make.

Ohh you soo beat me to it

 

[MacNut]

Not one to normally making sweeping generalisations but that is such a typical statement for an American to make.

With all due respect Apple is an American company first and a international one second.

 

[redskinsf]

New product and people already complaining. Cingular is the #1 carrier, and Verizon and Sprint are #2 and #3 respectively. Of course Jobs was going to go with the #1. I switched to Cingular from Sprint 2 years ago, the technology is great, and I have no issues with the service they provide.

This phone or pda, whichever you'd like to call it will be a great device.

Does anyone know if it has iChat on it to connect to AIM?

 

[shuurajou]

I'm in the UK, so the iPhone won't be here for a while, but when I first saw it's capabilities, I immediately thought I wanted one......then came the price.....then came the realisation that 8GB was pitiful for movies, music etc.

I'd also have preferred it if they'd made a widescreen ipod, with the same "controls" as the iphone, just without the phone and OS X capabilities, and released an phone, which was a phone, rather than an all in one PDA, both of which I'd probably have been tempted to buy. The 8GB storage isn't enough- I have 32GB of music, and know people with more.

Does anyone think they're still pursuing the widescreen ipod idea? Or will that now be banished due to the release of the iphone.

Also, anyone think that a $499 price point is way too high? When it's out (in UK), it'll probably be about £299, and if they stick with a 2 year contract, that means spending £720 over 24 months plus the phone cost! That's not the way to entice new customers.

In the UK the most you'll probably end up spending will be £50 quid on a 30 pound a month contract. the UK subsidise phones a lot more than the USA. It's like comparing Apples to Oranges (haha, see what I did there?).

 

[peharri]

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

Two year exclusive, according to CNN.

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.

Complete rubbish. Different carriers have different strengths in different areas. T-Mobile is excellent around where I live. Sprint PCS and Verizon are both awful. (BTW: check out http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/17/verizon-ceo-thinks-its-unreasonable-to-expect-your-cellphone/)

There's little doubt it was a disappointing (to the point of "I will not buy it" in my case) decision to lock the phone to Cingular (or any one carrier). There's no question however that GSM or UMTS was the best technology for it being open, neutral, international, and with a real commitment to advancement. What would you have proposed? CDMA2000? An outgrowth of AMPS whose support by US operators has to do with its cheapness and the ability to control their customers?

I will not buy the iPhone, because I don't want to sign up to a 24 month contract, I don't particularly want to use Cingular, and I don't want a phone that's locked to a particular carrier. But the choice of GSM is something I'm behind. My only disappointment is the lack of UMTS support, but I guess they're waiting for the AWS spectrum to start being used.

 

[AnonymousBeef]

Price Price Price

Just too high in this case. I think a reasonable price would have been at most $350. I have always thought that was the genius behind apple's initial ipod campaign- The ipod family has always been priced slightly above what one would be willing to spend otherwise for a similar non-apple product. I think in this case, Apple Computers (Oh, sh*t, Inc.! sorry ...) might be reaching a little too far. I love the design, functionality, and yes, even the storage space (I mean seriously, I think 8GB is enough to get you through a couple of days), but its not enough for the price of the hardware plus contract.

I'm not even going to touch on the provider debate...y'all seem to have it covered.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I live in an area where a CDMA carrier is really your only choice. At this time I would not pay the price that Apple wants for the phone anyhow. Don't get me wrong, it is an awesome phone, but has a limited customer base (at the time). Now after the Cingular only requirement goes off in 2008 if this iPhone takes off like wildfire (ie. iPod) you will see both GSM and CDMA versions. Apple had no choice but to initially began with a GSM phone because that is the largest market worldwide.

I see the marketing of the iPhone working a lot like the iPod. Remember the first iPod was only available for the Mac. When they saw the success of it then they moved into the Mac/Windows version. The same happened with iTunes.

Even though GSM is huge, there is also a very large CDMA user base in the US and a few other parts of the world. If the iPhone takes off I can guarantee there will also be a CDMA version for carriers such as Verizon, Alltel and Sprint in the future.

 

[Kernel Panicky]

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.

It's interesting that you call Boost and Virgin bottom of the barrel carriers. Having worked for Sprint Nextel for a decade (Nextel 1st then Sprint at the time of the merger), I can tell that although you may have tried many carriers you are someone whom has no information to back up your claims...

Boost is Nextel. It runs on the Nextel network nationwide. There is absolutely no difference in coverage what so ever. It works the same way for Virgin and Sprint. Virgin coverage is identical to Sprint coverage.

Now while I do have to say that Prepaid services like Boost and Virgin are not the most economical services out there, calling their service bottom of the barrel when they share the exact same coverage as carriers that you praise and call premium service is just ignorant.

I am no longer an employee of Sprint Nextel so I'm not gaining anything by shedding light on this (in fact I don't even use them anymore), but it bugs me when people think their "OPINIONS" should be stamped in gold and hung up for all to see. Especially when their opinion is based on bogus information.

 

[Hoosierdaddy]

Pretty Funny...

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.

Pretty funny coming from someone who's on a message board for a product used by approx. 2.8% of PC users worldwide.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2072141,00.asp

You people (MAC users), above all, should know that just because "most people are using it" does not make it the better solution. I don't live in 80% of the world. I live in the US and Verizon's monster EVDO network easily beats Cingular's HSDPA in the US, where it matters to me.

I heartily agree with the person who posted this thread.

 

[mikeyPotg]

I'm REALLY impressed with the phone after watching the flash demos on the apple website.

I could go on and on about all of the things that I love about it, but I wont bother you with that. Instead, my only complaints as of now would be, 1) cingular, 2) not 3G. 3) the verdict is still out on how easy it'll be to type on it.

I'd love to get my hands on it!

 

[Felldownthewell]

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.

This is opinion and opinion ONLY until you give me a survey of several thousand people, or buy a phone from all of the carriers and test call quality in several places all over the world. I say world because some of us use our phones all over the world- I would never buy another CDMA phone as I spend quite a bit of time in Europe and there are no CDMA networks that I could use in Europe.

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.

Cingular is the largest network in America. It is not a "bottom of the barrel" carrier. Boost and Virgin are MNVO carriers; they piggyback on other networks. Cingular and T-Mobile (as well as Verizon and sprint/nextel) have their own cell phone towers, so MNVOs could be considered "bottom of the barrel," but not Cingular

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.

Sprint would have been a better choice for YOU. Sprint makes absolutely no business sense, and since Apple is not a non-profit technology company, they wen't with the company that will make them the most money.

 

[Zwhaler]

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.

Don't worry, i'm sure Cingular paid big bucks to have it exclusively on their network. Unfortunately.

 

[MacNut]

Don't worry, i'm sure Cingular paid big bucks to have it exclusively on their network. Unfortunately.

I would not doubt that, I think Apple went to the highest bidder.

 

[pdxmark2]

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 totally agree with this. With only 8GB, it's just a Nano with a big screen. I'd much rather have a widescreen iPod without a phone, than a combo of all three. The greatest thing about my iPod video is that it can hold ALL my music. ALL my photos, games, and a ton of video, and I still have 15GB left on my 60GB player.

 

[brbubba]

Actually - just found this:

"Cingular will be Apple's sole U.S. partner. It's an exclusive multiyear agreement, which means no other carrier will be able to sell the iPhone through 2009."

Its Quad band so it will support every GSM network anywhere in the world. I doubt Apple would be selling them direct locked to Cingular, that would be marketing suicide. For US people that means it will work with Tmobile.

Also those expecting to get that speed on google maps with EDGE, dream on! I have a Helio Drift with google maps on 3G and its still slower than the website shows.

And having been on Sprint for 3 years, Tmobile for 2, Cingular for 2, and now Helio I can definitely tell you one thing for certain, CDMA battery life SUCKS and CDMA phones SUCK. IMHO, nothing beats the GSM phones coming from the likes of Nokia and SonyEricsson, and I am not talking about most of the ones sold by Cingular and Tmobile.

 

[dllavaneras]

As all GSM phones in the US, I expect to spens a BIG premium if I want it unlocked (if that's even an option at this point!) so I can use it with my SIM

 

[mkrishnan]

As all GSM phones in the US, I expect to spens a BIG premium if I want it unlocked (if that's even an option at this point!) so I can use it with my SIM

That's probably pretty realistic at least for the first year or two. Hopefully they will exit the exclusive phase and at least offer other US GSM providers. Otherwise, if you don't want Cingular, and you want this in the next year or two, you'll probably need to buy an unlocked one off of somebody on eBay and hope for the best.

But it is soooo sweet!

 

[macEfan]

yeah, I was hoping it would be verizon compatable also, as I currently have them for the service provider. Too bad... I don't know if I would even want an iphone though.. I mean its really nice looking, but it is very expensive!

 

[alkora]

Good Things for Apple:

1.) It is GSM. More Market coverage = more money. I hate to break it to you guys, but there are more cell phones outside the US than inside it.

(bad) They don't penetrate the whole american GSM market.

- "Why no CDMA?" To be honest with you, the only major CDMA markets left are US and Japan, with Japan moving to 3G anyways. And Apple would be hardpressed to compete in Japan's market (currently).

2.) Wow factor. Come on, admit it, they've got it.

(bad) No matter how much wow factor they've got, if it doesn't function great, it's not gonna do great.

Bad things (or things we must wait to see):

1.) Price.... Yeah it's the iPod/Phone combo, but who want's a lesser iPod mixed with a phone for that price? I understand some people want that, but we will have to see how the market reacts to it, especially for that price.

2.) Delay for international releases. This will be the biggest thing to hurt Apple, especially with the delayed Asia release of 2008. More phones in Asia than in the rest of the world...

3.) No 3G.... Yet. This is where the market is going. Apple will need to penetrate this market as well to be successful with future versions of the iPhone. What Apple does with this will be key to long term survival.

These are My 2cents on the phone. I will NOT be buying the phone not because I don't like it ( I have cingular and I'm happy with them), but rather the price pushes me away

 

[mikeh123]

The price includes contract so not that bad if you really like the phone.

In the USA you are stuck with cingular for "multi years"

In europe pricing will be different and deals may be struck with carriers such as Orange but more than likely will freely available but restrictive on price.

The carriers will pay Apples' prices as there will be huge demand for this phone.

We dont know the details yet so we are still using guesswork. We kow something of the US deal but not the rest.

 

[coal]

I love how on Cingular's site it says "Exclusively from Cingular and Apple" as if Cingular had anything to do with its development at all. This was Cingular's next 50 birthday presents and something that they did not deserve at all.

That said, boo. Great phone which I would love to own, but there is no way that I'm tying myself down for two years to that tired old company with inflated data prices on a slow 2.5G network.

Why would Apple cripple this advanced piece of technology by chaining it to Cingular? Aside from that, Cingular is notorious for their terrible customer service and poor employee relations. In my mind, this seems to be the antithesis of Apple's business philosophy with their products. How disappointing and how very backward.

 

[iW00t]

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.

Actually in Asia people are more ahead in terms of mobile technology than you yanks

CDMA has long made way for 3G.