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C|Net: Apple's Stumbles Kill The Emotional Response to iPhone 3G

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 1:00 PM - by

Apple elected to roll out MobileMe, OS X iPhone 2.0, the App Store and the iPhone 3G all on the same day, July 11. That's a lot of pressure, and the technical glitches in MobileMe and the new iPhone software may have taken away some of the emotional response that propels customers into new purchases, according to C|Net on Tuesday.

Matt Asay, a self-proclaimed Mac fan, admitted that he was eager to get a new iPhone 3G, even though he'd bought an original iPhone just a few months ago. He waited in line like everyone else.

However, the luster has worn off. He's not getting a big payoff with the 3G network and switching between networks has been difficult. The "not so great" 2.0 software is, well, not so great, and the battery life is poor, the C|Net author reported.

In a better rollout, some problems might get ignored. "Apple relies on an emotional response to its products to sell them, at least initially. For example, once you've used OS X you'll never go back to Windows, but that first leap of faith is just that: a leap of faith that you're willing to take because the UI is so beautiful. You recognize the power after the purchase," Mr. Asay wrote.

"If Apple continues to screw up the initial, emotional connection to its products through activation issues, buggy software, etc., at some point it's going to hurt its sales," the author surmised. "I'm a Mac fan, but I've decided to pass on the iPhone 3G for the foreseeable future. I imagine I'm not alone."

In hindsight, one also has to wonder what was so secret and sensational about MobileMe that it had to be sprung as a same-day surprise instead of rolled out in a steady-handed beta period. Customers may get excited about new Apple hardware, but they also get fairly picky about the handling of their personal data, and that negative emotion could very well affect the perceived success of the quadruple rollout.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:19 pm

No, he is not alone. I will not be getting an iPhone either. I'm also less than enamored with the mobile me fiasco. So, I've started searching for alternatives.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:33 pm

While the MobileMe mess was less than stellar, put it into perspective. A huge number of people piling on to a brand new service and hardware failure causes catastrophic results...for about ten days.

Ok, that sounds bad.

It could have been a LOT worse.

I think about the situation of me waiting in line to pay $4-plus for gas, knowing at any given moment, the pumps could cut off and the manager says "sorry, we're out and we don't know when we're getting any more."

I think I need gas more than I do mobile access to my email. I can still go to a computer and get it. Inconvenient, yes, but at least I'm still mobile......

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derpassante said:

member since 23 Aug 2007 with 15 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:41 pm

People harp on Mobile me but for most people it was a few days of glitches.

As for the iphone. People are still lined up to buy them.

Just the usual negative pile on by CNet stuff.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:13 pm

C|NET usually likes nothing Apple, so this is the same old story. Maybe they might want to go to an Apple Store and see the lines that are still there three weeks later. Selling the one millionth iPhone 3G in just three days seemed to prove their reporting as wrong.

Even though I have had some problems with MobileMe and the iPhone 2.0 software, these reports are overblown. The iPhone 3G is the BEST phone I have ever owned. I have owned several Windows Mobile, Palm, and Blackberry smartphones, none of which is even close to the iPhone in usability, features, and overall performance.

It always amaze me is the ones that NEVER bought or used the iPhone are the most critical about why no one should get one because of all the so-called problems that they heard about. We have three iPhones (and still have a Blackberry) and our problems have been minimal.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:27 pm

Maybe if Apple stopped being fucking fascist and requiring you to give AT&T $#!%-tons of money for their crappy cellphone service, I'd consider buying one. The phone itself seems nice, but why can't I pick my own provider and plan? It's ridiculous how most Apple buyers are like mindless lemmings with their purchases.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:38 pm

Guest wrote:
Maybe if Apple stopped being fucking fascist and requiring you to give AT&T $#!%-tons of money for their crappy cellphone service, I'd consider buying one. The phone itself seems nice, but why can't I pick my own provider and plan? It's ridiculous how most Apple buyers are like mindless lemmings with their purchases.

Maybe if you had a clue as to how the US cell carriers worked you wouldn't have your head so far up your ass that you'd know what you are talking about. You bring shame to the name of Guest

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:03 pm

CNET as always gets it WRONG!!!!!

Demand for the 3G iPhone is 10 times more than what the demand for the original iPhone was a year ago.

"It's ridiculous how most Apple buyers are like mindless lemmings with their purchases". Sounds like a true Windows user to me.

Nobody is forcing you to buy the iPhone. AT&T is the only service provider right now and that's just the way it is, do DEAL WITH IT!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:43 pm

I've been a Macintosh user for 8 years, a .Mac user >1 year and an iPhone user for almost a year. No matter how much you like Apple (obviously I do), MobileMe was a marketing and customer service disaster with proportions that have yet to be fully appreciated (to call them epic is probably an understatement). I believe that Apple has pretty much shut down their future in "cloud computing" with this misstep. I certainly won't renew MobileMe and will try to get a refund on my recent renewal (though I have my doubts that the arrogance they've displayed re: MobileMe will allow such a defection). It's really too bad that they botched this so badly, but even if the launch had been smoother the loss of fuctionality in MobileMe vs. .Mac was significant enough to make me a former customer. When people are paying $100 a year for something that is otherwise generally free for the taking or available at a much lower price, well, you better deliver top notch reliability and functionality. Apple simply didn't. Stick to hardware/software Steve -- you're out of your league.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:52 pm

I've used .Mac since day 1 and although homepage, icards are missing now, i have my .mac email address and it works quite well with Mail and my iphone and I can still access it at work - the fact that I have adequate spam protection and no ads will make me stay with .mac. I do wish that the gallery has better integration with iWeb but i really dont have too much time to create a website at the moment. one day maybe. For now posting galleries fro friends to view and contribute to is good enough for when we have parties. I'm not a huge fan of facebook and wont be using that for my photos so gallery suite me. I'm glad i did not have problems with the lost mail etc but then again for many 1st time apple users who have bought iPhones, I dont think this would have affected their purchase as they would have already had their own email services. Still there are quite a number of basic features I'd like on the iPhone, but in terms of usability over features, I take usability any day. My last phones were Nokia7650, sony ercisson P90i, Nokia N90 and imate and everything was too small, too clumsy crashing far too much and far too many quirks. and yet those operating systems have had far more time to develop. The iPhone is only at 2.0. Remember how we used Nokias with green screens 10 years ago? just imagine the iPhone in 2. Give them a break. ok Yahoo mail looks great - but you get all that advertising. and thats about it. I am happy with 1 account, i password and i place for the services and i do use the file sharing and storage a bit too. I'm satisfied with Mobile me and the iPhone which I use a LOT and for various things besides the phone.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:00 am

"I believe that Apple has pretty much shut down their future in "cloud computing" with this misstep."

Oh don't be such a drama queen! The roll out was or is a mess, sure. If the problems never get fixed than yeah Apple will be in deep trouble. But we know Apple will fix it and then it will work quite smoothly and everyone will forget the initial glitches.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:35 am

Is it really that hard to learn how to spell "CNET"?

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