10 Things that "Absolutely suck" about the iPhone. (Yes I have one)

[tirk]

Job's clearly thinks there are still improvements to make!

 

[ScandaLeX]

I will claim my credit. They have all kinds of cute toys in the Apple Store that I would like to have.

Still, I have to say that I feel less ripped off by Apple than I did paying Palm $700 for a GSM Treo while CDMA customers were paying $400-. I cannot remember; did Palm ever offer me a credit?

How could you feel "less ripped off?" Its not like Apple is refunding you back $100 that you can use whereever you want; you have to use it for another of their products, in one fo their stores; whereas the people who paid for the iPhone at the cheaper price can take the money they didnt initially spend and do whatever with it.

Either way, Apple still keeps your money.

 

[cmaier]

Fine by me. $200 off stuff I was going to buy anyway is just as good as $200 cash to me. And to me it's a $200 gift. I was willing to pay full price for the iphone because it was worth it to me; the fact that they lowered the price after I bought it doesn't change the fact that I felt like I got what I paid for when I bought it.

 

[ScandaLeX]

$100 or $200? Most of what I've read so far says only $100 is being given back.

 

[mikec#IM]

hmm

9th iPhone in the wild seen...

Nothing is the same as cash. "I woulda bought it anyway" is denile, because you would have bought it already. But if you are happy, it's all good.

 

[cmaier]

No denial. I was waiting for leopard before buying, and i am still going to wait. I figure they'll spin new hardware around the leopard introduction. (yes, cash would have been better - would have earned a few cents interest prior to my hardware purchase)

 

[ScandaLeX]

Sorry. I have two iphones (one for my wife, who also loves hers).

Thanks for the clarity.

 

[Kupe#WP]

Well, Apple was mostly honest about their $100 squeaky-wheel greasing program - except the part about being able to spend it on any product sold by Apple. Looks like you won't be allowed to purchase an iTunes gift card with $100 overcharge. Chalk up another thing that "absolutely sucks" about an iPhone purchase experience. Apple: We reserve the right to nickel & dime you ad nauseum.

 

[cmaier]

Really? I thought i saw somewhere (tuaw?) that people had already bought itunes gift cards.

Though, frankly, I'm not sure of the advantage - the codes you get don't expire, and if I want to give one away as a gift I can scribble it into a hallmark card just as easily as i can go to apple for a plastic gift card. I guess you mean to use it specifically to buy songs? (apple has itunes certificates, itunes gift cards, apple gift cards, etc. gets confusing!)

 

[cmaier]

Here's the article I read quoting apple saying you CAN use it for itunes gift cards, and where the author claims to have done so:

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/15/iphone-100-credit-can-be-used-for-itunes-gift-cards/

 

[oalvarez]

i suppose it's a lot like the rest but it's funny how the non-iPhone owners are the ones arguing otherwise ($100 rebate and how it can/can't be used).

 

[cmaier]

Well, as long as they don't expire, and as long as they are stackable (both of these are true), I'm happy. It's (present value of $200 about two months from now) in my pocket that I didn't expect.

 

[cmaier]

And now that I think of it, really?

"Chalk up another thing that "absolutely sucks" about an iPhone purchase experience. Apple: We reserve the right to nickel & dime you ad nauseum."

I mean, I've never had a better purchasing experience. When I've purchased Palm and samsung phones, when I've done it via Sprint stores they have gone and told me one thing in the store about my plan, and then I get the first bill and see they enrolled me in completely different plans. When the price came down on the phones, I never got any kind of rebate, not cash, not future discounts. Nothing. When my palm repeatedly crashed, wiping out my preferences database, neither Sprint nor Palm did anything to help; I think there were two firmware upgrades in the entire time I owned the treo 650, and both of those required me to delete stuff off my phone so I would have enough free memory just to install them. When I had to call to get my phones turned on, I was usually on hold for a long time, followed by someone trying to sell me yet more plan options before they would authorize my phone; it certainly wasn't something I could do from within a software program on my PC.

iPhone isn't even close to perfect, but this is definitely the best purchasing experience I've had with a cellphone. When I hear reports of people smashing their iphones and getting instant free replacements from the apple store, I laugh at the thought of getting that kind of treatment from palm or sprint. And to say one is getting nickle and dimed because one might not be able to convert free "apple cash" into a free "itunes cash" is sort of silly compared to what goes on with other phones and phone plans.

 

[Kupe#WP]

With 8 smartphones and 7 regular phones purchased from Verizon over the last years 7 years (plus a data card), I'm still surprised to get significant discounts even when I offer to pay full price (to keep my contract term from changing). For example, I just purchased a Q9m 3 weeks ago, planned on paying the full $419 for it, the phone rep told me I could have it for $349 with a 1 year, but I turned that down. The CSR then told me I could have it for $349 without a contract change. I almost refused ( hah!), but took the deal anyway. Two days later, when I called to activate the Q9m, I got another $100 knocked off just for having already purchased the unlimited data plan. $249 with no contract on a $419 retail phone - now THAT's a positive purchasing experience. :thumbsup:

 

[bruckwine]

firmware that bricks unlocked and/or jailbreaked phones intentionally! They can say what they want and spint eh press how they like to look innocent, but when you have some of the best software & hardware engineers in Silicon Valley it's hard to believe that, after releasing several previous firmware updates that did NOT brick things, all of a sudden it happening as a side effect and not intentional!!

 

[cmaier]

firmware that bricks unlocked and/or jailbreaked phones intentionally! They can say what they want and spint eh press how they like to look innocent, but when you have some of the best software & hardware engineers in Silicon Valley it's hard to believe that, after releasing several previous firmware updates that did NOT brick things, all of a sudden it happening as a side effect and not intentional!!

Maybe. This is the first firmware update that updated the baseband; installing it actually deactivates your phone (even if you were not hacked/unlocked), which then gets reactivated when you connect to itunes. None of the previous firmware updates did this. Not clear how much of the baseband update was to prevent unlocking, how much was to brick unlocked phones, and how much was for other purposes.

But using previous firmware updates as evidence that this one is malicious isn't necessarily an accurate way to analyze the situation.

 

[mikec#IM]

bricks r us

It's in Apples best interest to brick all unlocked phones...they want the carrier revenue. Simple as that.

Screw the $600, $400, whatever you paid...their cut of your monthly bill is where the bucks are.

 

[cmaier]

Well, it's not in their best interest to brick them such that they can not be activated even with AT&T, which is apparently what happened, at least for one of the two unlocking methods.

I'm guessing what went on is they had to change the code for other reasons (and to prevent against future unlocks), and they just didn't care one way or the other whether they bricked phones in the process.

 

[mikec#IM]

well

Those "unlockers" are still a minority (albeit a vocal one), and as you said, Apple doesn't care.

Maybe more shepple will buy another iPhone to replace their bricks. More revenue more better...

 

[whmurray]

There was a feature, iTunes, added. Works pretty well. No video.