iPhone - Where’s the Juice?
07.12.07 - 11:57am
The iPhone has been hailed as innovative, the best web browser ever, beautiful! - yet the service for most, is less than spectacular.
Apple’s decision to go strictly with the AT&T network is definitely hurting. Bottom line, as good as the iPhone is the EDGE network is slo-o-ow.
It’s understandable why Apple would go with AT&T’s GSM network as this is the standard network across Europe. Verizon and Sprint use Qualcomm’s CDMA technology. Why they choose EDGE over 3G is another matter. Apple says it decided to go with EDGE because it would take more power to use 3G making the iPhone battery life shorter. However, since WI-FI (if you can find it the web on the iPhone is awesome), takes up a ton of power and this is the iPhone’s high speed option, the problem was probably more due to the fact that AT&T’s 3G coverage has huge gaps. (Too many customers to miss out on.)
The other thing the iPhone lacks is the social networking capabilities. Basically, without going through a computer with a cable, the iPhone doesn’t really communicate very much with anything. When you do talk with someone first you must choose how - web, e-mail, phone, then call, rather than choosing who and having all the options available. There is no coherent views of text messaging, visual voice mail, and multimedia e-mails. It doesn’t support sharing photo’s, recording podcasts, text communities, has no location awareness and has only a minimalist widget for text messaging. In a world where social networking is the “it” thing it’s surprising that Apple fell behind on this, especially when the target market is mainly the 18-34 year-olds.
Businessmen are also finding it cumbersome for e-mails. The first problem is storage. For business people who receive a lot of e-mails only being able to store 200 doesn’t work. Also the e-mail browser is slow and there is little functuality. There is no cutting and pasting text, no calling directly from e-mails, no downloading attachments to specific folders and there is no search capabilities. The iPhone also doesn’t show e-mails in real-time, every 15 minutes or so is the fastest you will receive new e-mails. Basically e-mail form looks great on the iPhone but the function doesn’t match up.
Fortunately for Apple the tech community is working in various groups to create a better web environment for the iPhone - They may fix some of these problems for Apple.
The big question is now, after the initial iPhone rush, will high sales continue, or will the iPhone, without the faster service, simply end up being a great looking item with no juice. Basically a really incredible video iPod with an awesome web browser.
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