News

Analyzing Seven iPhone Disppointments

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 4:15 PM - by

Technical journalist Brian Caulfield said he had seven disappointments with the iPhone: the cost, no Adobe Flash support, no replaceable batteries, no video recording, no cut and paste, no MMS and no voice dialing. Alex Zaharov-Reutt couldn't resist examining each item one by one on Tuesday.

Of course, the cost of owning an iPhone 3G is going to go up because the data plan and SMS plans get more expensive. However, that's the cost of building a 3G network, according to Mr. Zaharov-Reutt, not something that Apple failed to deliver.

On item #3, the author with ITWire pointed out that he owns a Kensington iPhone battery pack and linked to it. No big deal there.

Regarding the lack of a video recorder -- just wait. That's very likely to be one of the native applications released for iPhone 2.0. Along with voice dialing.

"So, the seven iPhone disappointments aren't really all that disappointing after all. Yes, some will rely on third party software when they're standard features elsewhere. But the iPhone's stellar ease of use and gorgeous interface puts most other phones to shame," Mr. Zaharov-Reutt concluded.

The gist of the story isn't simply that one author finds disappointments and and another refutes them. Rather, it's how one user perceives the term disappointments and how another use has gone ahead an solved the problem or how his work flow doesn't really demand certain functionalities.

Finally, Apple's engineers work with constrained resources, so if they know a developer is working on something cool, they'll move on to bigger fish to fry. Today's "disappointment" is a tomorrow's WWDC Apple Design Award for a developer.

9 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:32 pm

Cut & paste is a serious shortcoming. I've needed it numerous times, and just didn't bother making several notes that would've been much easier with c&p.

MMS I can do without. I needed it once since I've had the iPhone, and I just e-mailed the picture instead.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2076 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:44 pm

Re: replaceable battery

Ask everyone you know who has a cell phone if they have an extra battery. I'd bet that you'll get something like:

- 5% yes

- 40% no

- 55% "My phone has a replaceable battery?"

I found only one person out of over 30 who owned an extra battery. She didn't carry it but kept it in a charger on her nightstand. That way, she always had a charged battery in the morning. About half of those 30 weren't aware that they could replace the battery.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:58 pm

My biggest disappointments are no Cut-n-Paste and no iCal To-Do integration. That was true with the current iPhone and so far nothing from Apple indicates these are coming in iPhone 2.0 (or iPhone 3G). Cut-n-Paste probably can't be satisfied by a 3rd party. iCal To-Do "may" be improved with MobileMe but somehow I doubt that it will appear on the iPhone. Mail's To-Do is lame and not fully integrated with iCal. --Mike Weasner

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YodaMac said:

member since 21 Mar 2007 with 24 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:55 pm

I can't believe people are still talking about replaceable batteries and lack of a physical keyboard??!! The iPhone's been out a year now and has proven it's a success. Those are non-issues already!

Just because "geeky-tech-#2319" straps a battery to his chest bandolier and stuffs a folding keyboard into his fannypack - doesn't mean the rest of the world (read: normal civilization) cares about either of those things in the real life day-to-day casual use we all enjoy with the iPhone.

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diverreb said:

member since 11 Feb 2002 with 14 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:48 pm

The three biggest disappointments I have with the phone are it's on the AT&T network, which is much worse that Verizon in my area.... Way to many dropped calls and low/no service areas compared to Verizon and call quality is worse than Verizon also. The second, which I hope will be addressed with the new software, is the ability to send and receive pictures via Text Messaging. It's a real pain to have to go to an web site and put in a password & ID # just to view a photo someone attaches to a text message. The third is lack of speed dial, something I also hope there will be an App for. I want a home page with assignable icons or photo's. Unlock the phone the page is there and you just hit the icon.

Richie

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rwahrens said:

member since 19 Jul 2006 with 50 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:18 am

Network disappointments are subjective, depending on where you live. In MY area, AT&T is ubiquitous, with few problems, according to every one I've spoken to about it. Funny how my Verizon phone never dropped a call until my contract ran out - then the next month - at least a dozen! I'll move to AT&T with no regrets.

Don't need MMS, just email the suckers! Any Verizon phone can send pictures to an email address. Just tell your senders to email them to you, on your phone, you can obtain email easier anyway. If they don't have email, tell em to get an iPhone!

Haven't used an iPhone yet, so I don't know about the speed dial, but you CAN build your own configurable home pages, and can move from one to the other with a sideways flick o' the finger!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:24 am

Guest wrote:
My biggest disappointments are no Cut-n-Paste and no iCal To-Do integration. That was true with the current iPhone and so far nothing from Apple indicates these are coming in iPhone 2.0 (or iPhone 3G). Cut-n-Paste probably can't be satisfied by a 3rd party. iCal To-Do "may" be improved with MobileMe but somehow I doubt that it will appear on the iPhone. Mail's To-Do is lame and not fully integrated with iCal. --Mike Weasner

Right On!

I want an app on the iPhone that I can just swipe TO DO items off the list when they are done, maybe just tap and hold to get more detailed info about that TO Do and to top it off sync it all with Mail and iCal.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:26 am

Maybe it's just me, but I have a feeling that some additional features will pop up at the last minute.. ie. 'oh yeah we improved the screen & used glass instead of plastic'

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TosaDeac said:

member since 05 Feb 2008 with 16 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:36 pm

My three biggest disappointments echo what others have said but in general do not detract from my satisfaction with my iPhone.

1) No sync for note pad. Or they could just integrate this into a to do feature with the Calendar.

2) No voice dialing. Bluetooth headsets really don't make life that much better if you still need to use the phone to physically dial the number.

3) No clip and paste. Although this is low on my disappointment it would be a nice addition but I can see how it would be hard to integrate given the way the device works.

As far as speed dialing...if you put a contact in your Favorites then it is pretty much like a speed dial. Just double tap the home button and then you have your contacts there that you can tap on once to dial the assigned number. Not too many extra steps needed.

Also I have gotten by just fine without MMS and video recording. Heck the camera itself is not that great so why would I want to shoot videos with it!

I have also been fine with AT&T. Sure its service may not be great everywhere but really is there any one phone out there that is great EVERYWHERE. Some cities have better coverage from different providers. Sure people will then say that the iPhone should be unlocked so you can have it on different providers based on which works best for you in your area, but I still contend that the exclusivity of the iPhone with AT&T is really not that much different than most other phones with their exclusive deals with other providers. I don't hear a lot of Sprint or AT&T customers complaining about not being able to get an LG Voyager unless they switch to Verizon!

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