I think people are still basing their expectations of cell phones on the old model of lots of style with little substance. Before the broader adoption of touch screen smart phone functionality that the iPhone ushered in, cell phone "innovation" was largely about case design, which goes stale quickly. Witness the rise and fall of the Razr.
But in the age of handset as small computer, does that make any sense? Why should we expect or want any kind of radical reworking of the iPhone? Consider the laptop-- what has changed in the decade plus that these devices have been broadly available? Smaller, lighter, cheaper, brighter screens, more powerful, gradually evolving connectivity, but the basic design remains unchanged.
The iPhone will get more powerful, have more memory, the screen tech will improve, connectivity will evolve, battery life will lengthen, the camera will improve. Who knows, Apple may add more colors.
But none of that "refreshes" the iPhone in the old sense of stimulating ADD gear hounds by sticking fins on the thing. It's a minimal slate that takes its character from the software it's running, and that's where the serious innovations are going to be. Anyone who is disappointed because the next iPhone looks pretty much like the current iPhone isn't grasping what the iPhone is.
What design can Apple do to the iPhone that falls under your "revolutionary" hopes? Would you like to see a non candy bar form factor as in an Apple flip phone? A physical keyboard? The common plugs for removable battery, camera on front, flash for camera, OLED Screen, denser pixels, and so on.
It's easy to say I'm waiting for something great other than slight improvements and then not quantify what improvements you think need to be accomplished in order to call the next phone something other than a slight improvement over previous models...
Afterall, the MBP looks like the MBP of a few years ago except for the internals like unibody construction, increased processing power, larger hard drive and externals such as different color keys, a all in one glass trackpad, etc. I can't envision a laptop radically designed in such a way that makes someone say, "That's a laptop?"
What will Apple's redesign of the iPhone have to be to make you or someone else say, "That's an iPhone?"
Sorry for the delay in reply, I had you on my ignore list.
I was referring to the expectation that the next iPhone will have PASemi chips in it, which by all accounts could lead to an order of magnitude improvement in speed and battery life, and thus also multi-tasking and integrated apps. There has been no solid information thus far that they are actually doing this though.
If they are still just using similar, but slightly faster chips and therefore just tweaking the software a tiny bit, it will be a big letdown for a lot of folks.
Man, along with more memory and a faster processor, I really hope for a front acing camera and a 856 by 480 screen, maybe 2-3 tenths of an inch larger than the current one diagonally. But keep the form factor. And just overall better speakers, microphone, all that jazz. i am really happy with my 3gs now....
it might outlast that, but it cant even outlast a day of usage... you shouldnt have to buy an added peripheral to boost abysmal battery life, either improve it or make it swappable.
Is carrying around an extra internal swappable battery really that much better than carrying around an external peripheral battery? It's a little smaller, but that's about the only advantage. And you'd have to shut off your phone to change batteries.
The trade-off is that if Apple made the battery swappable but kept the overall dimensions of the iPhone the same, that swappable battery would have to be smaller with less capacity than the built-in battery (battery compartment walls, connectors, latches, and battery shell itself all take up space that aren't needed for the built-in battery). So you'd be forced to carry around an extra swappable battery in more circumstances because that battery would run out sooner than today's battery. You could make the iPhone larger, but then the same argument would still apply...I could put in a higher capacity built-in battery than I could a swappable battery in the same space.
Unless you know of some real breakthrough advancements in the battery industry that i dont know of, the only way currently is through better chips/programming and a beefier battery. The option should ALWAYS be there for a hotswappable battery, cell phones demand you to be mobile, if you need to be tethered with a power cord constantly then some serious improvements need to come out or just do the obvious, make them swappable.
Besides, swapping batteries is not that archaic like you would make it seem lol.
Not gonna happen.
You need to stop treating the iPhone like some brick of generic hardware. It isn't. Its form and clean lines are just as important as any other aspect of the device. And that is certainly a substantial part of the love consumers have for this device.
An external battery booster I'll take any day over compromising the iPhone's form. Consumers certainly aren't complaining. Apple went its own way with this device (as with most things) and they've proven they know best. Simple as that. No hardware keyboard. Not even MMS or copy and paste from the get-go. Yet the iPhone has developed as it did, under Apple's sole direction and has hit nothing but high after high, record sales, and now within 2% of RIM almost overnight. The rest of the industry is trying furiously to copy it and most are coming up short, including the latest "iPhone Killer."
We've gone past the swappable battery debate months and months ago. In other words, there is no debate. Accept it.
iPhone battery life is adequate for day to day use. If your battery is draining prematurely, you might have a stuck process or application that remains open despite your closing it. It's rare, but in such an event simply back up your iPhone and then restore it as per Apple's recommended procedures in this event. That should at least eliminate one possibility.
If next iPhone has RFID I'm not buying unless there is a software option to disable it and can be proven to do so.
I'm concerned too about that! I personally think RFID is a great technology, but govt. and authorities will misuse it. In fact Govts. have always misused great technologies....
Anyway, I would not like to have RFID in my iPhone.
so... i've had 13 iphones in 3 2.5 years, 9 warranty replacements. am i supposed to say these phones are reliable and worth it?!? i love the iphone, i really do, i don't want to leave it, but i'm at the point where i'm absolutely sick of it. i should be on phone number 14, but i'm holding out or switching...
bought a 4gb when they came out. unlocked it and sold it later
bought an 8gb 2g, sold and upgraded for a 3g
bought an 8gb 3g, speaker went on that.
bought an 8gb 3g from my neighbor because my speaker on the last one went out (out of warranty)
my current phone i literally ::set:: on the table and the screen started scrambling, shows 4 screens now that scroll.... its out of warranty too, so i'm not taking it in or replacing it, i switched back to my old one and make all calls on speakerphone.
so, in between those phones... 9 have gone out. 3 screens, no cracks or broken glass. a mute switch fell off, a home button went out, and one where i called someone and it would turn off. restored and same thing continued.
there were others too, this is not an exaggeration. so tell me.... should i really have a 300-400-500$ phone that makes me drive 90 minutes to the apple store when something goes wrong?!??
so... i've had 13 iphones in 3 2.5 years, 9 warranty replacements. am i supposed to say these phones are reliable and worth it?!? i love the iphone, i really do, i don't want to leave it, but i'm at the point where i'm absolutely sick of it. i should be on phone number 14, but i'm holding out or switching...
bought a 4gb when they came out. unlocked it and sold it later
bought an 8gb 2g, sold and upgraded for a 3g
bought an 8gb 3g, speaker went on that.
bought an 8gb 3g from my neighbor because my speaker on the last one went out (out of warranty)
my current phone i literally ::set:: on the table and the screen started scrambling, shows 4 screens now that scroll.... its out of warranty too, so i'm not taking it in or replacing it, i switched back to my old one and make all calls on speakerphone.
so, in between those phones... 9 have gone out. 3 screens, no cracks or broken glass. a mute switch fell off, a home button went out, and one where i called someone and it would turn off. restored and same thing continued.
there were others too, this is not an exaggeration. so tell me.... should i really have a 300-400-500$ phone that makes me drive 90 minutes to the apple store when something goes wrong?!??
terrible.
You're experiences are unfortunate. They are also an aberration. Bad Apple karma?
You're experiences are unfortunate. They are also an aberration. Bad Apple karma?
Yeah, that's just crazy. I would contact Apple customer service with good documentation of that track record, and see if there isn't something they can do.
so... i've had 13 iphones in 3 2.5 years, 9 warranty replacements. am i supposed to say these phones are reliable and worth it?!? i love the iphone, i really do, i don
My comments before weren't me trying to be a smartass. It's just that your experiences are way out of the ordinary. Almost voodoo doll-like. i say go straight to SJ or someone as high as you can get. I believe his information is somewhere on the net, but call Apple HQ in Cupertino and have your documentation ready, and keep on them. I have a feeling you'll be rewarded for your troubles.
It's starting to seem like the next iPhone will be just another 3Gs, or 3Gs plus or something rather than the revolutionary redesign many have hoped for. ... I think the public in general really needs to be wowed again.
Apple is already falling behind the curve, compared to Android. By mid-summer, there is likely to be multiple Android phones which are superior to the iPhone.
And Nokia seems to be waking from their slumber, with the N900 blowing the iPhone away in terms of hardware.
Unless Apple comes up with some kind of killer app or killer hardware feature, the momentum will be gone for them.
My comments before weren't me trying to be a smartass. It's just that your experiences are way out of the ordinary. Almost voodoo doll-like. i say go straight to SJ or someone as high as you can get. I believe his information is somewhere on the net, but call Apple HQ in Cupertino and have your documentation ready, and keep on them. I have a feeling you'll be rewarded for your troubles.
no offense taken whatsoever.
i feel that it is quite ridiculous, but i also am aware that many of my friends, i'd say half, have had a warranty replacement at some point. i definitely feel like the quality has improved since the 2g. the majority of the replacements were made on the 2g platform and design.
i used to have steve jobs email address. i've emailed him before, of course, never got a reply tho.
how would one go about retreiving all history of visits at the genious bar? surely they have all my documentation in a computer. i dont have boxes or keep the receipts. once the first few happen, the stack got too big to even contain.
True, Apple doesn't listen to customers. Apple shows customers what they want before customers even know it.
And they're right.
If that is true, then why do so few people buy Apple products? They ave single-digit market penetration in pretty much every market they have ever entered.
i feel that it is quite ridiculous, but i also am aware that many of my friends, i'd say half, have had a warranty replacement at some point. i definitely feel like the quality has improved since the 2g. the majority of the replacements were made on the 2g platform and design.
i used to have steve jobs email address. i've emailed him before, of course, never got a reply tho.
how would one go about retreiving all history of visits at the genious bar? surely they have all my documentation in a computer. i dont have boxes or keep the receipts. once the first few happen, the stack got too big to even contain.
I've read anecdotal reports of people who have been pleasantly surprised when pushing Apple HQ. I'm not sure how to go about retrieving all your documentation. But everything you do with Apple is somehow recorded, somewhere. Perhaps others members here who are closer to the industry can be of more service to you than I can. There is a year-old thread on Neowin about this, one which I contributed to. I think there's some information there that might be of use to you. I'll do my best to look it up over the course of the next couple of days.
If that is true, then why do so few people buy Apple products? They ave single-digit market penetration in pretty much every market they have ever entered.
Apple is #3 in smartphones, right behind RIM (within 2%), and by the looks of it, about to overtake them. That's a helluva lot of iPhones, and numbers are growing at incredible rates.
iPods? That's all you see.
Macs are limited by:
1) Price
2) OS-lockdown
Both 1 and 2 are deliberate strategies by Apple.
And if you believed the Laptop Hunter ads, it would seem everyone lusts after Apple products one way or another. After all, you're here, aren't you?
If you take the time to assess the situation and consider Apple's business model, then look at their mindshare, you'd begin to see the answers to your questions. You can use the fact that Microsoft is driven by Ignorance and Inertia as the starting point for your investigations.
If this is the approach that Apple wants to take, then I think they need to have special stations in the retail stores where one can bring the machine and obtain immediate battery replacements without appointments.
No appointment in a retail store? Wow!
But then Apple would have to hire adequate staff, who would "wait on" the customers, instead of the customers waiting until an appointment is available.
I've read anecdotal reports of people who have been pleasantly surprised when pushing Apple HQ. I'm not sure how to go about retrieving all your documentation. But everything you do with Apple is somehow recorded, somewhere. Perhaps others members here who are closer to the industry can be of more service to you than I can. There is a year-old thread on Neowin about this, one which I contributed to. I think there's some information there that might be of use to you. I'll do my best to look it up over the course of the next couple of days.
I emailed Steve. We'll see if I get a reply. Last time I emailed him I didn't, but it was much longer in my younger days, complaining about not having flash support hahah.
This is a much more realistic complaint. Supposedly short messages with a catchy subject line are the way to go.
Soon to find out. I'll keep you updated. Shoot me a PM or something. Maybe I'll be rewarded with a prototype bwahahah
Comments
I think people are still basing their expectations of cell phones on the old model of lots of style with little substance. Before the broader adoption of touch screen smart phone functionality that the iPhone ushered in, cell phone "innovation" was largely about case design, which goes stale quickly. Witness the rise and fall of the Razr.
But in the age of handset as small computer, does that make any sense? Why should we expect or want any kind of radical reworking of the iPhone? Consider the laptop-- what has changed in the decade plus that these devices have been broadly available? Smaller, lighter, cheaper, brighter screens, more powerful, gradually evolving connectivity, but the basic design remains unchanged.
The iPhone will get more powerful, have more memory, the screen tech will improve, connectivity will evolve, battery life will lengthen, the camera will improve. Who knows, Apple may add more colors.
But none of that "refreshes" the iPhone in the old sense of stimulating ADD gear hounds by sticking fins on the thing. It's a minimal slate that takes its character from the software it's running, and that's where the serious innovations are going to be. Anyone who is disappointed because the next iPhone looks pretty much like the current iPhone isn't grasping what the iPhone is.
Very good point, addabox.
i agree, many of us are hoping for
1- 5+ megapixel camera - HD video capability to record
2- flash for camera
3- swappable battery
4- slide out keyboard!!
--------
....
I would hope people have given up on 3 and 4 already. They are superbly bad ideas that will probably never happen.
Flash we need, sometimes I use my phone as a light at night time.
Swappable battery, no way. Apple will never make it. If they do the iPhone will be bulky and will lost it's elegance.
Keyboard? It's so old now. The future is touch keyboard. Don't wanna accept? Buy other crappy phones like Blackberry, Nokia and Droid.
i agree, many of us are hoping for
1- 5+ megapixel camera - HD video capability to record
2- flash for camera
3- swappable battery
4- slide out keyboard!!
--------
and non-ATT service those of us in usa.
also, as for manufacturing in Taiwan, its a great idea. at least it is democratic there and the workers are better labor with more income and rights.
What design can Apple do to the iPhone that falls under your "revolutionary" hopes? Would you like to see a non candy bar form factor as in an Apple flip phone? A physical keyboard? The common plugs for removable battery, camera on front, flash for camera, OLED Screen, denser pixels, and so on.
It's easy to say I'm waiting for something great other than slight improvements and then not quantify what improvements you think need to be accomplished in order to call the next phone something other than a slight improvement over previous models...
Afterall, the MBP looks like the MBP of a few years ago except for the internals like unibody construction, increased processing power, larger hard drive and externals such as different color keys, a all in one glass trackpad, etc. I can't envision a laptop radically designed in such a way that makes someone say, "That's a laptop?"
What will Apple's redesign of the iPhone have to be to make you or someone else say, "That's an iPhone?"
Sorry for the delay in reply, I had you on my ignore list.
I was referring to the expectation that the next iPhone will have PASemi chips in it, which by all accounts could lead to an order of magnitude improvement in speed and battery life, and thus also multi-tasking and integrated apps. There has been no solid information thus far that they are actually doing this though.
If they are still just using similar, but slightly faster chips and therefore just tweaking the software a tiny bit, it will be a big letdown for a lot of folks.
it might outlast that, but it cant even outlast a day of usage... you shouldnt have to buy an added peripheral to boost abysmal battery life, either improve it or make it swappable.
Is carrying around an extra internal swappable battery really that much better than carrying around an external peripheral battery? It's a little smaller, but that's about the only advantage. And you'd have to shut off your phone to change batteries.
The trade-off is that if Apple made the battery swappable but kept the overall dimensions of the iPhone the same, that swappable battery would have to be smaller with less capacity than the built-in battery (battery compartment walls, connectors, latches, and battery shell itself all take up space that aren't needed for the built-in battery). So you'd be forced to carry around an extra swappable battery in more circumstances because that battery would run out sooner than today's battery. You could make the iPhone larger, but then the same argument would still apply...I could put in a higher capacity built-in battery than I could a swappable battery in the same space.
Unless you know of some real breakthrough advancements in the battery industry that i dont know of, the only way currently is through better chips/programming and a beefier battery. The option should ALWAYS be there for a hotswappable battery, cell phones demand you to be mobile, if you need to be tethered with a power cord constantly then some serious improvements need to come out or just do the obvious, make them swappable.
Besides, swapping batteries is not that archaic like you would make it seem lol.
Not gonna happen.
You need to stop treating the iPhone like some brick of generic hardware. It isn't. Its form and clean lines are just as important as any other aspect of the device. And that is certainly a substantial part of the love consumers have for this device.
An external battery booster I'll take any day over compromising the iPhone's form. Consumers certainly aren't complaining. Apple went its own way with this device (as with most things) and they've proven they know best. Simple as that. No hardware keyboard. Not even MMS or copy and paste from the get-go. Yet the iPhone has developed as it did, under Apple's sole direction and has hit nothing but high after high, record sales, and now within 2% of RIM almost overnight. The rest of the industry is trying furiously to copy it and most are coming up short, including the latest "iPhone Killer."
We've gone past the swappable battery debate months and months ago. In other words, there is no debate. Accept it.
iPhone battery life is adequate for day to day use. If your battery is draining prematurely, you might have a stuck process or application that remains open despite your closing it. It's rare, but in such an event simply back up your iPhone and then restore it as per Apple's recommended procedures in this event. That should at least eliminate one possibility.
RFID is evil
If next iPhone has RFID I'm not buying unless there is a software option to disable it and can be proven to do so.
I'm concerned too about that! I personally think RFID is a great technology, but govt. and authorities will misuse it. In fact Govts. have always misused great technologies....
Anyway, I would not like to have RFID in my iPhone.
bought a 4gb when they came out. unlocked it and sold it later
bought an 8gb 2g, sold and upgraded for a 3g
bought an 8gb 3g, speaker went on that.
bought an 8gb 3g from my neighbor because my speaker on the last one went out (out of warranty)
my current phone i literally ::set:: on the table and the screen started scrambling, shows 4 screens now that scroll.... its out of warranty too, so i'm not taking it in or replacing it, i switched back to my old one and make all calls on speakerphone.
so, in between those phones... 9 have gone out. 3 screens, no cracks or broken glass. a mute switch fell off, a home button went out, and one where i called someone and it would turn off. restored and same thing continued.
there were others too, this is not an exaggeration. so tell me.... should i really have a 300-400-500$ phone that makes me drive 90 minutes to the apple store when something goes wrong?!??
terrible.
so... i've had 13 iphones in 3 2.5 years, 9 warranty replacements. am i supposed to say these phones are reliable and worth it?!? i love the iphone, i really do, i don't want to leave it, but i'm at the point where i'm absolutely sick of it. i should be on phone number 14, but i'm holding out or switching...
bought a 4gb when they came out. unlocked it and sold it later
bought an 8gb 2g, sold and upgraded for a 3g
bought an 8gb 3g, speaker went on that.
bought an 8gb 3g from my neighbor because my speaker on the last one went out (out of warranty)
my current phone i literally ::set:: on the table and the screen started scrambling, shows 4 screens now that scroll.... its out of warranty too, so i'm not taking it in or replacing it, i switched back to my old one and make all calls on speakerphone.
so, in between those phones... 9 have gone out. 3 screens, no cracks or broken glass. a mute switch fell off, a home button went out, and one where i called someone and it would turn off. restored and same thing continued.
there were others too, this is not an exaggeration. so tell me.... should i really have a 300-400-500$ phone that makes me drive 90 minutes to the apple store when something goes wrong?!??
terrible.
You're experiences are unfortunate. They are also an aberration. Bad Apple karma?
You're experiences are unfortunate. They are also an aberration. Bad Apple karma?
Yeah, that's just crazy. I would contact Apple customer service with good documentation of that track record, and see if there isn't something they can do.
so... i've had 13 iphones in 3 2.5 years, 9 warranty replacements. am i supposed to say these phones are reliable and worth it?!? i love the iphone, i really do, i don
My comments before weren't me trying to be a smartass. It's just that your experiences are way out of the ordinary. Almost voodoo doll-like. i say go straight to SJ or someone as high as you can get. I believe his information is somewhere on the net, but call Apple HQ in Cupertino and have your documentation ready, and keep on them. I have a feeling you'll be rewarded for your troubles.
It's starting to seem like the next iPhone will be just another 3Gs, or 3Gs plus or something rather than the revolutionary redesign many have hoped for. ... I think the public in general really needs to be wowed again.
Apple is already falling behind the curve, compared to Android. By mid-summer, there is likely to be multiple Android phones which are superior to the iPhone.
And Nokia seems to be waking from their slumber, with the N900 blowing the iPhone away in terms of hardware.
Unless Apple comes up with some kind of killer app or killer hardware feature, the momentum will be gone for them.
its the software that makes it WOW.
yeah. I agree. Google Navigation makes me say WOW!
My comments before weren't me trying to be a smartass. It's just that your experiences are way out of the ordinary. Almost voodoo doll-like. i say go straight to SJ or someone as high as you can get. I believe his information is somewhere on the net, but call Apple HQ in Cupertino and have your documentation ready, and keep on them. I have a feeling you'll be rewarded for your troubles.
no offense taken whatsoever.
i feel that it is quite ridiculous, but i also am aware that many of my friends, i'd say half, have had a warranty replacement at some point. i definitely feel like the quality has improved since the 2g. the majority of the replacements were made on the 2g platform and design.
i used to have steve jobs email address. i've emailed him before, of course, never got a reply tho.
how would one go about retreiving all history of visits at the genious bar? surely they have all my documentation in a computer. i dont have boxes or keep the receipts. once the first few happen, the stack got too big to even contain.
Yet they keep coming back for more.
True, Apple doesn't listen to customers. Apple shows customers what they want before customers even know it.
And they're right.
If that is true, then why do so few people buy Apple products? They ave single-digit market penetration in pretty much every market they have ever entered.
no offense taken whatsoever.
i feel that it is quite ridiculous, but i also am aware that many of my friends, i'd say half, have had a warranty replacement at some point. i definitely feel like the quality has improved since the 2g. the majority of the replacements were made on the 2g platform and design.
i used to have steve jobs email address. i've emailed him before, of course, never got a reply tho.
how would one go about retreiving all history of visits at the genious bar? surely they have all my documentation in a computer. i dont have boxes or keep the receipts. once the first few happen, the stack got too big to even contain.
I've read anecdotal reports of people who have been pleasantly surprised when pushing Apple HQ. I'm not sure how to go about retrieving all your documentation. But everything you do with Apple is somehow recorded, somewhere. Perhaps others members here who are closer to the industry can be of more service to you than I can. There is a year-old thread on Neowin about this, one which I contributed to. I think there's some information there that might be of use to you. I'll do my best to look it up over the course of the next couple of days.
If that is true, then why do so few people buy Apple products? They ave single-digit market penetration in pretty much every market they have ever entered.
Apple is #3 in smartphones, right behind RIM (within 2%), and by the looks of it, about to overtake them. That's a helluva lot of iPhones, and numbers are growing at incredible rates.
iPods? That's all you see.
Macs are limited by:
1) Price
2) OS-lockdown
Both 1 and 2 are deliberate strategies by Apple.
And if you believed the Laptop Hunter ads, it would seem everyone lusts after Apple products one way or another. After all, you're here, aren't you?
If you take the time to assess the situation and consider Apple's business model, then look at their mindshare, you'd begin to see the answers to your questions. You can use the fact that Microsoft is driven by Ignorance and Inertia as the starting point for your investigations.
If this is the approach that Apple wants to take, then I think they need to have special stations in the retail stores where one can bring the machine and obtain immediate battery replacements without appointments.
No appointment in a retail store? Wow!
But then Apple would have to hire adequate staff, who would "wait on" the customers, instead of the customers waiting until an appointment is available.
I've read anecdotal reports of people who have been pleasantly surprised when pushing Apple HQ. I'm not sure how to go about retrieving all your documentation. But everything you do with Apple is somehow recorded, somewhere. Perhaps others members here who are closer to the industry can be of more service to you than I can. There is a year-old thread on Neowin about this, one which I contributed to. I think there's some information there that might be of use to you. I'll do my best to look it up over the course of the next couple of days.
I emailed Steve. We'll see if I get a reply. Last time I emailed him I didn't, but it was much longer in my younger days, complaining about not having flash support hahah.
This is a much more realistic complaint. Supposedly short messages with a catchy subject line are the way to go.
Soon to find out. I'll keep you updated. Shoot me a PM or something. Maybe I'll be rewarded with a prototype bwahahah