For the past two weeks, Apple and AT&T have received a lot of press lately because of the release of the iPhone. I disagree with the hype simply because of my cynical view of popular technology reaching the masses without adequate benchmarking. Hear me out on this, I love Apple products, but I am just not purchasing an iPhone and I explain.
For the longest time (since OS 9 era), Apple has made it very clear they needed to offer compelling features if they wanted people to invest in them. Essentially, they went from almost extinct to a elitist brand that everyone buys. Well, that dramatic transformation has led to their own benchmark — they must meet their users existing needs before expanding into unfettered territory such as cell phones (or Windows if you look at iPod users).
That said, I was disappointed at how Apple sold its contract to AT&T. The telecommunications conglomerate, formerly Cingular/Southwestern Bell/Pacific Bell/Bellsouth/Etc., has never had a positive note in my book. I’ve spent hours with their poor customer service porting my old cell phone number to competitor T-Mobile. This narrow-minded approach in offering proprietary services and features is the primary reason why I refuse to purchase an iPhone with AT&T service. As with any great company, you can usually tell if they’ve got it together if their customers are satisfied and/or at least if their customer service is helpful.
To AT&T’s credit, I understand that cellular service is a tough market to win any satisfaction in. However, their network is not optimal for broadband communication (trust me, even text messages took minutes to receive). The iPhone thirsts for network-intensive tasks such as YouTube and more. Why in the world did AT&T bid on the iPhone if they didn’t intend on making their network broadband-capable.
Much like the cable and [landline] telephone companies — they finally understand that it’s the speed, not corporate acquisitions and takeovers, that win consumers over. Comcast offers 12Mb residential service (which probably no average user would ever really consume). I am doubtful AT&T is not overselling their features.
Apple should understand that users like interoperability. You’ve done it with OS X for Bootcamp, iPod for iTunes, and Safari for Windows. Why not make the iPhone compatible with more than one carrier? The question the Cupertino giant needs to ask themselves is not, “How can we get the most money in the bid,” rather, “How can we split royalties from two or more cell phone networks, leveraging the power of two cell phone networks and satisfy the most people to make even more money?”
I know, I know, maybe the FCC would give push back to the idea of a phone using two telcos. Oh, wait…
Here’s ten more reasons why I am not going to get my hands on the iPhone
- It’s proprietary (which may or may not be such a bad thing for Apple)
- It’s ball-and-chained with an activation mechanism similar to that of Windows.
- Users have reported slow speeds when using the Web.
- Users reported activation hassles.
- Spending $60/mo on a two-year agreement with AT&T.
- You’ve spent $500 – $600 and you can’t avoid the big blue ball.
- The first generation of anything has its problems.
- The second or third generation usually introduces price drops and firmware updates.
- You can count on #8, because Apple historically has been impressive at their keynote events
- AT&T Customer Service.
Even though I’m deeply biased against the iPhone and AT&T I can respect the folks who did get one. I want to know why you bought an iPhone or why you’re not getting one. Post it in the comments.