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Will Apple make a cellphone?

S

snowmen

macrumors member
Original poster
Ok, people will say Apple already made 2 iPhones.

But I don't think so. I think and I rank iPhone as the one of the best small-factor computer, which takes you to internet everywhere, play games everywhere, and even doing IM everywhere. Even though the crash rate is a bit high, but it doesn't change the outcome of the best small-factor computer. iPhone is a small-factor computer with the ability to call using cellular network.

Now, what's the problem you might ask.

1. It crashes too often to be a phone.
Last time I crashed, I was browsing a complex website, which mind you Safari crashes every time you go to a website that uses tons of picture or ram-eating monster stuff. I was browsing a complex website and my girlfriend called. The incoming call window show up and I cannot press the Green button! It stops responding to any input! Ok, at least this time I got her call, I know I can use Nokia to phone her back.

2. Too many drop calls to be a phone.
It is ridiculous! This month I receive around 30 complains toward friend/customer/boss phoning me that iPhone didn't even know of! Apple promised to fixed it on 2.1 but eventually it DOESN'T. What can a phone do if it cannot receive calls?
And trust me, it is not Roger's fault (strangely as this is the first time I defense Rogers), because the Nokia backup phone receive calls fine.

3. Keyboard problem.
Today I had a little vacation trip to a ski resort, so I left the Nokia-backup home and thought I don't need this N80 as my backup phone. I was on holiday, who would call me? I was wrong again... I had to call my friend from the summit! Ok, my glove wasn't those big one so normally I could press button on a regular phone, but today it's my first time taking out the glove to slide-to-unlock and wait-longer-than-usual-to-load-Contact and by the time my friend was talking to me, my hand freezed and could barely hold a phone... Plus, it is even slower to react or no reaction to finger tip at all at -14C... So it made already very slow phone even slower.

I mean... Come on, Apple!
How hard can it be to make a cellphone with syncing MobileMe function on it? I want a phone with these of function in it, not the other way around...
 
snowmen said:
Ok, people will say Apple already made 2 iPhones....
Click to expand...

hmmmm intresting you say that.
My safari always crashes when i go on high complex websites. Sometimes when i finish a call it won't et me hang up. I will just freeze up. But we can only complain. But you are right. This is not a phone nor a cellphone anymore. Moreover it's strange that people still call todays cellphones, cellphones. I mean the iphone is just like you said a miniature computer that has capabilities to make phone calls. This is the same with other phones like blackberries, palms, ect. They are multimedia machines.
 
Almost every feature phone and smart phone made these days is a computer system more powerful than an entire university super computer lab once used to be.

.
 
Apple will never make a dedicated phone which is JUST a phone.

Apple is and will always be a high end brand and will not be bottom feeder.

To go that route means the commodity low margin route which eventually leads to no business.

Apple will always sell high spec, expensive gear.

They don't want to produce a phone for everybody, just everybody who can afford one.
 
the iphone is a smartphone, and they all have their problems....
If you want something to make excellent calls and nothing else then go buy a razr
 
snowmen said:
3. Keyboard problem.
Today I had a little vacation trip to a ski resort, so I left the Nokia-backup home and thought I don't need this N80 as my backup phone. I was on holiday, who would call me? I was wrong again... I had to call my friend from the summit! Ok, my glove wasn't those big one so normally I could press button on a regular phone, but today it's my first time taking out the glove to slide-to-unlock and wait-longer-than-usual-to-load-Contact and by the time my friend was talking to me, my hand freezed and could barely hold a phone... Plus, it is even slower to react or no reaction to finger tip at all at -14C... So it made already very slow phone even slower.
Click to expand...

You do know you can unlock your phone with your tongue right? or your nose or whatever is sticking out of you clothes?
 
hazza.jockel said:
You do know you can unlock your phone with your tongue right? or your nose or whatever is sticking out of you clothes?
Click to expand...

See, Sister, here's how it happened. I was answering a call of nature, and being -10, I didn't want to expose too much of myself, so I didn't take my gloves off. Then whaddya know, I got a call on my iPhone, and ok I try to slide the thingy, but it wont work with my gloves on, so what's a man gotta do to answer a call? ok so I try something else, you know what, so now ya know, that's how I turned up with an iPhone stuck to the end of my whazznot. Sister, why you laughing? Sister, don't do that to a guy ok? Pleeze? Sister, please put that dang camera down ok?
 
I've never had one dropped call in the hundreds of phone calls I've had with it. Don't blame your shortcomings on Apple, stating that the iPhone isn't a phone. (Seriously, what the hell?)
 
To be honest I don't have many problems with calls, and sometimes Safari can get obnoxious.

With that said, a very obvious reason to why your iPhone became less responsive is the fact that the iPhone's operating conditions are much higher than the temperatures you described and don't forget altitude...

"Environmental requirements
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F
(0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F
(-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)"

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Now, I don't think Apple will EVER make a phone for the average consumer. They never really have, with the exception of the iPod, and they are still quite high end. It just doesn't make sense. Right now the iPhone has the status of being the "oOo" smartphone. I don't think they would introduce a product that is somewhat average and will change that image... Sorry.
 
needthephone said:
Apple is and will always be a high end brand and will not be bottom feeder.

To go that route means the commodity low margin route which eventually leads to no business.

Apple will always sell high spec, expensive gear.

They don't want to produce a phone for everybody, just everybody who can afford one.
Click to expand...

Really? Ever heard of the iPod Shuffle? Even the iPod Nano is pretty cheap.

I can see Apple building a Nano-based iPhone in the future...
 
Sorry I don't have any of those issues.
Apple will not make just a phone because the margins are slim.
Thread fail.
 
Actually I have the same problems he's having..
Safari always crashes on me. Just installed 2.2 and seems to be more stabe 4 now. But I'm always having reception issues w this iPhone. The 3g is just not stable 4 me indoors. I'm really considering The Blackberry Bold. Looks like a great phone!! iPhone is nice but I need a reliable phone. I wish Apple would fix the reception issues and not try to hide it by falsely telling me I have reception w those lying bars!! 5 Bars... Yeah Right!! Damn phone can't even make a damn call!!
 
Well, the reason I got the iPhone is because I hardly make calls and I want the internet, e-mail, etc. wherever I am.

I only had dumbphones before the iPhone and I'll never go back. I'd rather have a BlackBerry than a dumbphone. 😀
 
firewood said:
Almost every feature phone and smart phone made these days is a computer system more powerful than an entire university super computer lab once used to be.

.
Click to expand...

Problem is...
If they can make calls/receive calls and don't crash, I'll be perfectly fine with that...

needthephone said:
Apple will never make a dedicated phone which is JUST a phone.

Apple is and will always be a high end brand and will not be bottom feeder.

To go that route means the commodity low margin route which eventually leads to no business.

Apple will always sell high spec, expensive gear.

They don't want to produce a phone for everybody, just everybody who can afford one.
Click to expand...

No body here complain about the price. In fact, iPhone is my cheapest phone I have! Every cellphone I have, I paid over $600 and sometimes $1000. But regardless the price, THOSE PHONES WORK!

Tallest Skil said:
Oh, you mean one of those craptacular non-smartphones?
Click to expand...

What a nonsense reply!
So... you mean a smartphone should drop calls, crash a lot?

Doju said:
I've never had one dropped call in the hundreds of phone calls I've had with it. Don't blame your shortcomings on Apple, stating that the iPhone isn't a phone. (Seriously, what the hell?)
Click to expand...

As I said, no body complain to you doesn't mean you don't have drop calls.
Even your beloved Apple Inc. address this problem in 2.1, 2.2 fix! So, Wake up!


-------------------------------------------------
Really... I'm starting to disappointed in Apple after 13 years of using it. Apple do make good product before, but now what they got is marketing and probably only Mac Pro with Tiger installed.
 
You know, it's funny. I read a lot of enormous stories on here like "safari crashes hard" and "dozens of dropped calls every week", but I have yet to experience a Safari lock-up and I've only had 2 dropped calls on the 3G network in my area. I've never had any keyboard lagging, or quite frankly and of the problems so often described on here. It makes me wonder...
 
This thread is...
 

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Bryan Bowler said:
You know, it's funny. I read a lot of enormous stories on here like "safari crashes hard" and "dozens of dropped calls every week", but I have yet to experience a Safari lock-up and I've only had 2 dropped calls on the 3G network in my area. I've never had any keyboard lagging, or quite frankly and of the problems so often described on here. It makes me wonder...
Click to expand...

For Safari quit unexpected, you can go play Ikariam game and at the same time go to some news website without using the iPhone version.
In 2.1, Safari quit at just a few pages viewing in Ikariam, but in 2.2 it won't crash until the second heavy-load-page are loading.

As for the drop calls...
I have around $90 + $30 plan phone bills every month on "voice" alone. I make/receive significantly more phone calls than average folk paying $30 per month.

Apple said they fix it in 2.1, but it didn't.
Now they claim again that they fix it in 2.2, I don't know the result yet as it usually takes months until I receive enough complain. I really hope they fix this problem in 2.2.
 
I agree that apple should make a simple phone. Not a cheap one. Just a simple call, text, and music phone. Cause lets face it, some people just do not want/ cannot afford a smart phone. Apple should make a sim unlocked phone which smoothly integrates an ipod and a regular old phone together.
And you wanna see what this phone should look like?

nano-blue.jpg


Reliable service from whoever you choose + gorgeous apple interface + 8/16gb for your music, videos, and pictures. Sure sounds like a sweet phone to me.

What I suggest is to replace the scroll wheel with a multitouch laptop trackpad, and have an OLED lit keypad/traditional ipod buttons.
Put a mic on the bottom and a speaker on the top.
Add a 1.3 or maybe 2.0mp camera.
Package it with iphone headphones.
And have it run as a phone first and an ipod second.
Imagine you verizon phone interface on this device, but when you run the ipod.app its no different from an ipod nano.

If this could be marketed for $200/$250 or even iphone prices(200/300) just without signing a contract, i think it would sell sell sell. Especially since phone companies would almost certainly offer there own subsidy like they do with any normal phone if you sign a contract. Most phones cost 100 to 300 bucks without that discount for signing up to their service.

oh and all the douchbaggs calling this thread a fail:
shut the f@*k up and quit trolling. This thread is damn good ideas IMO. A basic phone fills a gap which is not going away. Just like the ipod mini did when it was introduced. ipod nanos sell more than ipod classics. the nano doesn't quite fit in the category of "expensive"

rolex54 said:
the iphone is a smartphone, and they all have their problems....
If you want something to make excellent calls and nothing else then go buy a razr
Click to expand...

apple should make a product in the same category as the razr. everyone had that gadamn phone!
Imagine if every everyone who had an ipod mini and a razr got one of these things. big $$$ for apple
 
This thread is epic fail on so many levels.

First of all, EVERY cell phone made today is a mini computer. Most of them are just extremely basic and don't do much other than making phone calls. But to make some extremely stupid point about "well, it's not really a phone" because it does so much else is like saying Macs aren't DVD players because they can do word processing and e-mail. I can play a DVD in my MacBook Pro, so it's a DVD player.

The only dropped call problems I have had have been with people on the other end in places with very bad reception. Even if they had an iPhone, there's nothing that Apple can do to fix that. If they send an iPhone to the International Space Station, is it Apple's "fault" that the phone won't make a call? No, it's because they're hundreds of miles from the nearest cell signal. This first generation iPhone has been more reliable than any other phone I've had (including a phone that didn't give me a voicemail about a canceled event until the day after). If this is some thing that happens more with the 3G, consider me laughing at how the craptastic material that replaced the aluminum was supposed to provide a better signal.

Lastly, about the low profit margins on basic phones: your point? I'm assuming that the $50 iPod Shuffle has a low profit margin. Didn't stop Apple from making them for people who just wanted a basic music player. In fact, the Shuffle was the bait that got me wanting an iPod w/video a few years ago. I have no doubt that Apple is researching making a cheaper version of the iPhone, but they are much more focused on improving the iPhones already being made.
 
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