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Not true. The reception problem is REAL.

It may be real for many people, but not for me. Let me add a vote for "works great" and "has not dropped a call yet". It also seems to work better than the 1st gen iPhone, i.e. 2 bars instead of 1 in my basement office.
 
I went at 11 am to all apple stores in nyc on sunday the 20th and the bastards said they were out of stock! then that night I checked online and they said they had the white 16GB in stock! I waited outside all night on the release day and didnt get one! I drove into the city from an hour away! ahhhh!:(
 
Stock Availablitity seems innacurate

My Apple Store, in Madison WI listed the 16g White in stock on Friday Night after 9pm.

So having to go to work at 10 Saturday I didnt get a chance to stand in line, i didnt want to anyways, but around 130 i wandered over to the mall for my lunch and decided to take a stroll and have a look at the 3G in store, which was packed with people, I asked one of the lovely blue shirts the stock and to my surprise they had the 8gig Black in stock and ONLY that in stock, which was the model I was looking for. They had me stand by an IMac and I waited about 2 minutes before a gentleman brought out 3g Black, asked me 20 questions, popped it in the 3g dock, and I walked in and out in about 10 minutes on Saturday.

Now again today though, everything was listed as out of Stock in Wisconsin, go figure.
 
3G reception trouble = nonsense.

All you Americans listen the peep up, every opinion I have heard about European 3G owners have no problems with this, why?

Because we have 3G networks for years, and it's almost everywhere 100% coverage, even inside.

You Americans are just fed up with 5 year old standards, come on don't go blame it on the iPhone because companies over the great pond are now figuring out that customers want this. America should innovate more in telecom technology. Just look to Austria and even the rest of Europe. We are getting 3,6 MBPS and look at America:

Wow man we have 300 markets (whatever that means) with 1,4 MBPS.
:eek:
And now even reports going to about 50kb/s, har har, what a laugher.

3G iPhone is fine except the software, so except Apple is ramping up full production now.

because you guys dont have att as your wireless carrier.
 
Not true. The reception problem is REAL.
I've been conducting numerous tests comparing my Motorola RAZR2 V9 to the iPhone 3G. The RAZR2 V9 is reported to be one of the best reception phones available. I bought it because my home has very poor coverage. I originally tried an LG Shine which could not get any signal anywhere in my home, not even outside.

So far, the result of my testing has been pretty conclusive that the reception on the iPhone 3G is at least as good as that of the RAZR2 V9. The iPhone does report fewer bars of signal strength, but is as capable or more capable of making calls, maintaining a call, having good call quality than the V9.

I have an area in my basement where I can make almost any phone fail. So my tests involve seeing which phone fails first, how it fails, and how quickly it can recover. I'm on AT&T's network. In my area AT&T uses 1900mhz for both 3G and GSM. Results for other frequencies or firmware levels could be different.
 
Im in Canada and while AT&T was late in the game to introduce 3G, so was Rogers, but Ive only had great speeds on 3G, and the US is only an hour away. I usually have 5 bars when I am on 3G.. minus last night.. 400,000 people for a Paul McCartney concert.. kind of hard to have a stable signal.. but I did most of the time

Well that's stunning, a monopolist like Rogers that has their things better organized than the Americans where there IS competition. Ah well, my point still counts, it's like the other guy said even in South Africa the network is better.

because you guys dont have att as your wireless carrier.
Oh ok and... Verizon, T-Mobile, Nextel and Alltel and whatever carriers you got there don't have 3G? Oh wait they don't. That's my point, you guys where living in the stone age and are like now coming back in a slow pace to the present day. No pun intended to Americans though but I just find it ridiculous.
 
You Americans are just fed up with 5 year old standards, come on don't go blame it on the iPhone because companies over the great pond are now figuring out that customers want this. America should innovate more in telecom technology.

Why innovate, when resting on old, outdated technology lets the telecom industry practically print money, so that their CEOs and Boards can literally bathe in cash, while we fall further and further behind?

Yay for corporate oligarchy!
 
I'm pretty sure they have a quality issue there which limits their production output.

Supposedly AT&T has good 3G coverage where I live, but my iPhone keeps kicking in and out of 3G mode. Most of the time I've been leaving it on EDGE anyway to extend the battery life (currently running two days between charges). But I haven't noticed any quality issues beyond AT&T's spotty 3G network (which I'm sure will improve). My voice calls sound great; people thought I was still talking on my old land line phone.

It could be my iPhone that's the problem, but I doubt it. There are areas where I get a solid 4 bars and then there are other areas where I get poor coverage. That's AT&T, not the phone. The only other cell phone I've ever owned that continually got perfect reception was my old Tracfone, which would seamless switch from one network to another. And that's really how all communication devices should work. Maybe Apple needs to create its own iPhone network across the world. :)
 
AT&T Store

I went into an AT&T store and was told it will be at least 2 weeks before they have any stock. They said I can order one and that will take about 10 days. So I did, had to give them my credit card but they only charge when they ship. I am just surprised you can't do the same thing online and no mention on AT&T's website.
 
Scored 2 on Sat AM - Tucson, AZ

I checked the Apple Store iPhone-stock updater this past Friday after 9pm and they said they would have them in stock the next day. Showed up an hour early thinking there may be a line, no line and they were "soft" opened. Not all the lights were on but the doors were unlocked and anybody could go in like they were normally opened. They did not have anything but the white 16gb, so I bought 2. My wife wanted a black one, but she has a pink case over it anyway.
:D
 
Went into the Boylston Street store in Boston this morning, and they didn't have any. They said to check back tomorrow, because "they dont know when they get new shipments until they get there"
 
Apple Store

They do not tell you they are in stock because they get random shipments of 20-30 phones a day. If they tell you they have stock they will most likely be sold out by the time you get there. JUST GO TO THE STORE and hop on line. I picked up a 8gb and 16gb black on 7/18 12:30pm at the Menlo Park Mall in NJ and only waited 30 mins from start to finish. They do not even know when they are getting shipments. When I got on line that told me that had 0 8gb only 16. I get in the store I get an 8 and a 16
 
5th Ave

I work down the street from the 5th Ave. store, and every time I drop by, there's a line around the block. Yesterday around 6 pm there was a sign out front that there was no 3G iPhone available.

What's confusing is that on the website, it says the 5th Ave. store will be selling phones until 11:30 pm, yet whenever I walk past in the afternoon, the line is cut off around 3 pm. I think it's crazy that they're activating all these phones in the store -- why can't they just have you physically sign the contract, then activate at home?
 
Didn't that happen on the original iPhone last year? Many places struggle to have them in stock.
 
3G reception trouble = nonsense.

All you Americans listen the peep up, every opinion I have heard about European 3G owners have no problems with this, why?

Because we have 3G networks for years, and it's almost everywhere 100% coverage, even inside.

You Americans are just fed up with 5 year old standards, come on don't go blame it on the iPhone because companies over the great pond are now figuring out that customers want this. America should innovate more in telecom technology. Just look to Austria and even the rest of Europe. We are getting 3,6 MBPS and look at America:

Wow man we have 300 markets (whatever that means) with 1,4 MBPS.
:eek:
And now even reports going to about 50kb/s, har har, what a laugher.

3G iPhone is fine except the software, so except Apple is ramping up full production now.
Providing 100% 3G coverage of Austria or the Netherlands is a lot easier than providing 100% coverage in the US.

USA: 3.79 million square miles
Holland: 41,526 square miles
Austria: 32,000 square miles

Pretty much every major US city has 3G coverage. Those cities combined equate to a larger 3G coverage than either The Netherlands or Austria.
 
NJ iPhone availability

Went to Marlton NJ (Sagemore) store, was told no iPhones in NJ, sporadic shipments at best and check the website. A friend told me Garden State in Paramus said they get daily shipments, ignore the website and just come in/call each morning.

Why can't the stores get their acts together???
 
Checking Availability Online ALL Day

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this previously, but if you change the clock on your computer to be a time after 9pm you can view the inventories for the iphone on the apple site. I checked it this morning and it is updated regularly as several NY stores that were listed as having no inventory last night now have inventory listed.
 
you also have to think about the fact that the land line phone industry wasn't as developed in some of those places in europe and Africa. when cellular technology emerged it was more economical to create wireless networks in places like africa than to lay down telephone lines. the US was pretty well established so there wasn't as much of a need to develop cellular tech as quickly.
 
Fifth Ave Store

Actually pretty funny (sad):

I walked by 5th Ave store at 10:15 AM today and there was a no line but a big sign saying no iPhones. Two hours later I looked out my window (I have a view of the store) and there is a line around the block. Checked the web site (changing my computer time to 9:15 PM) and the sold out status went to green for all models.
 
Wow, I am completely shocked by this, I had expected them to have an over-stock of the phones. Any word on the AT&T stores? But I am assuming that they are in an even worse scenario with their stock.
 
I'm not so sure the availability is related to US 3G coverage (or lack thereof).
Looks like there's no shipments received on Sunday hence Out of Stock.

I checked the availablity in California and only 1 store in the whole state had them and only 16G Black.

I bet if you were to show up late afternoon ( after FEDEX And UPS have arrived) you might get lucky.
 
seems pretty universal, with 17.000 readers and 450 posts, not counting the numerous discussions elsewhere.

Let's see... 1 million phones sold the first weekend vs. 450 posts in a support forum... doesn't really prove that it's a universal problem.
 
limiting supply

So far I haven't seen anyone addressing the obvious issue. "Iphone sold out...," what could the reasons be?

1. "They are concerned that [X] feature isn't ready!" No. They would have simply pushed back the release date. It's better to slightly tick off everyone over a changed release date than to release it to a small fraction of the interested consumers who can then talk about how [X] feature sucks.

2. "They didn't make enough to meet demand!" No. This is not an entirely new product, it's a revision of a somewhat successful one. They had a full year to get production into gear and gauge demand for this thing. And from the first day, they were constricting supply.

Struggle for a while and you might arrive at:

3. "They are intentionally constricting supply to create a frenzied buying atmosphere." Yup. It's a gamble, but Apple is wagering that its loyal fans trust so deeply in their benevolence that this notion wouldn't even occur to you.

Companies have done this with many products in the past (Volkswagon beetle, for example), and it tends to encourage psychological distortion over the product's value -- "I waited in line for 7 hours for this thing and was the first to get it, look how awesome it is!," etc. Be careful when a company is making you jump through hoops to get its product, there's probably a reason for it that's less than admirable.

As soon as Apple behaves more like they want to sell to me and less like Machiavelli / Rove / :apple:, I'll be happy to buy one. For now, my life is complete without it.
 
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