I will admit that over time it will become even as other "smart phones" gain momentum and start to eat away at any given network. The difference right now is that the latest "droid phone" doesn't sell or add 600,000 phones in one quarter let alone in one day.
True, but Android isn't limited to a single manufacturer. Android sales in Q1 were 5.2 million devices, spread among multiple carriers.
When Apple stops giving free money to AT&T and begins to let customers choose their carriers, the distribution of traffic will help a great many things. Competition is healthy.
I live over in Fort Worth, and I'd say I get maybe one or two dropped calls a week on average. Obviously that's not very good, but they are normally calls to my wife while she is out in the sticks. I think at the absolute worst I've had maybe 3 dropped calls in a day. Now, I do more regularly get data connectivity issues and that is very annoying. I'm really hoping that the iPhone 4 with it's new antenna scheme helps with this.
My Edge connection used to be crap on my iPhone 3GS with OS 3.x , had to switch it to 3G to get good data connection. Now, on iPhone 3GS with OS 4.0 , my Edge-only connections seem to work fairly consistently so far. I mean, it's slower, of course, but it actually works consistently now. Could be the baseband update as well as OS update...?
I have a very interesting book on my shelf entitled "Objects of Desire." It describes how over the decades, manufacturers (successful ones, anyway) have perfected the art of designing and marketing things in such a way that we have a desire to own them. Hardly anyone is better at this today than Apple -- to the extent that some feel angry, embittered, and even jilted, whenever Apple does not satisfy their precise yearnings at every moment.
Just look at the almost comical expressions of outrage over the inability to get a white iPhone 4 right away, like now, like don't make me wait even a week. It is ridiculous, but not surprising when you consider that they're coming from a not rational place created by Apple's amazing desire factory. Apple has got this objects of desire thing down so cold, it's coming back to bite them.
Finally someone really "gets" it. The whole process of wanting and purchasing Apple products is getting irrational. Hence, there will be all kinds of other frustration and dissapointments when they realise it's not perfect. OS X can be weird to use. The iPhone doesn't do Bluetooth transfers. iTunes only syncs with one computer at a time, in most cases. There are *never* enough of the latest iPhones and iPads to be supplied around the world, going into 2011. Apple support and service is good, but it's nowhere near magical, and especially outside the US, it could be worse than say, Sony.
The WSJ review by Mr Mossburg is just super and a fine review of a fine product.. What comes through loud and clear. When will Apple do something about this handicap it is lugging around called AT&T? The damage it must be doing to Apple sales is very obvious . There are customers out there who would buy an iPhone in a flash, but they are holding off because of AT&T's poor quality of product.
It makes no sense at all. If I was in their shoes (I am not} i would also decline. Why would I buy a Rolls Royce grade product which only contains a small underpowered engine?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple///
I couldn't agree more. Assuming Apple knows this, then why would apple continue to do this? Also those potential customers may find something else over time.
Because at the end of the day Apple is, was, NEVER about DOMINANCE. They have a target of making a product, and selling a certain amount of units, making a large profit margin and a certain amount of profit. That's their modus operandi.
Right now, with the iPhone4, and iPad, internationally, Apple cannot keep up with demand, plain and simple. They simply cannot make enough iPhone4 and iPads fast enough to sell them. Could Apple ramp up production enough to fulfill demand, diversify out of ATT? Maybe, but again, they would not be going after DOMINANCE as a priority...
Add to that, Apple is historically, extremely, extremely conservative with their inventory. Maybe they got burnt somewhere along the line, but it is so ingrained in their culture to manage their inventory very, very tightly. It fuels the desirability as well.
Finally someone really "gets" it. The whole process of wanting and purchasing Apple products is getting irrational. Hence, there will be all kinds of other frustration and dissapointments when they realise it's not perfect. OS X can be weird to use. The iPhone doesn't do Bluetooth transfers. iTunes only syncs with one computer at a time, in most cases. There are *never* enough of the latest iPhones and iPads to be supplied around the world, going into 2011. Apple support and service is good, but it's nowhere near magical, and especially outside the US, it could be worse than say, Sony.
I guess, but I think it's not so much about perfection, as it is the need for Apple to satisfy every desire instantly. They have gotten so good at delivering appealing products, that many people have come to expect them to meet all of their perceived desires, and even fantasies, and not just meet them, exceed them, and right now, this very moment. If Apple can't achieve this impossible standard, they experience a kind of betrayal. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this, and I wonder what it means for Apple. Probably nothing, but it is a strange and fascinating phenomena.
I had Verizon for years until I switched to the iPhone. I actually have had equal or better reception (Philadelphia marketplace primarily). My wife still has a Verizon phone...I can make calls at my vacation home in the mountains where she can't.
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
QUOTE As far as Android, you can laugh all you want, but you sound like the self-contented Mac users circa 1989 who were sure that Microsoft would never be able to duplicate their superior experience. Unfortunately for Apple, they did.[/QUOTE]
That is just a laughable comment. Have you ever compared a Mac alongside a windows machine? win7 and Snow leopard are still light years apart in user experience. One is still just plain horrible.... But that's for a different thread...
I predict no iphone for Verizon until LTE ..... that's my opinion.
There is another category you leave out - those who are thinking about switching but then hear all the reports, jokes, etc. about AT&T. In that case the negative publicity is bad for Apple and does negatively impact the growth of the iPhone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJinTX
You made some good points, but I don't believe this to be one of them. Jay "Assmunch" Leno can tell all the AT&T jokes he wants, and some might even laugh (not me because I prefer Conan), however, the difference is whether people are laughing because they have heard people complain, or if they are having these issues with AT&T themselves.
If I am not having network issues myself, then jokes certainly aren't going to make me give up my iPhone. And if I am having network issues, I don't need a joke to tell me to change networks. I guess some people could be swayed by peer pressure in the media, but it sounds ridiculous to me.
As you can probably infer, I have had zero issues with my iPhone. I've been a happy customer of both Apple and AT&T since August 2007, and cannot imagine having a different phone. This includes usage primarily in Austin Texas, as well as Travel to Virginia, Detroit, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington DC, Seattle, and Hawaii.
There is another category you leave out - those who are thinking about switching but then hear all the reports, jokes, etc. about AT&T.
Exceeded only by all the reports, jokes, etc about VZW, Sprint... face it, they all suçk.
I'm not apologizing for AT&T, in fact I won't have an iPhone because of problems I've had with AT&T. Any other carrier will do. I'll order my iPhone the moment AT&T's exclusivity runs out.
There is another category you leave out - those who are thinking about switching but then hear all the reports, jokes, etc. about AT&T. In that case the negative publicity is bad for Apple and does negatively impact the growth of the iPhone.
Until they talk to people who own the iPhone vs. all the whining on the Internet and find out that for most people it works just fine
10 times as many pre-orders as the last launch. Yup, AT&T is a fatal albatross around Apple's neck
Comments
I will admit that over time it will become even as other "smart phones" gain momentum and start to eat away at any given network. The difference right now is that the latest "droid phone" doesn't sell or add 600,000 phones in one quarter let alone in one day.
True, but Android isn't limited to a single manufacturer. Android sales in Q1 were 5.2 million devices, spread among multiple carriers.
When Apple stops giving free money to AT&T and begins to let customers choose their carriers, the distribution of traffic will help a great many things. Competition is healthy.
F*KING MADE MY WEEK. Awesome mate.
The increase in speed in taking pictures is software related, not hardware; my iPhone 3GS is "instantaneous"
HOLEY MOLEY yeah... Just tried it, my iPhone 3GS is LIGHTNING now taking pics.
I live over in Fort Worth, and I'd say I get maybe one or two dropped calls a week on average. Obviously that's not very good, but they are normally calls to my wife while she is out in the sticks. I think at the absolute worst I've had maybe 3 dropped calls in a day. Now, I do more regularly get data connectivity issues and that is very annoying. I'm really hoping that the iPhone 4 with it's new antenna scheme helps with this.
My Edge connection used to be crap on my iPhone 3GS with OS 3.x , had to switch it to 3G to get good data connection. Now, on iPhone 3GS with OS 4.0 , my Edge-only connections seem to work fairly consistently so far. I mean, it's slower, of course, but it actually works consistently now. Could be the baseband update as well as OS update...?
I have a very interesting book on my shelf entitled "Objects of Desire." It describes how over the decades, manufacturers (successful ones, anyway) have perfected the art of designing and marketing things in such a way that we have a desire to own them. Hardly anyone is better at this today than Apple -- to the extent that some feel angry, embittered, and even jilted, whenever Apple does not satisfy their precise yearnings at every moment.
Just look at the almost comical expressions of outrage over the inability to get a white iPhone 4 right away, like now, like don't make me wait even a week. It is ridiculous, but not surprising when you consider that they're coming from a not rational place created by Apple's amazing desire factory. Apple has got this objects of desire thing down so cold, it's coming back to bite them.
Finally someone really "gets" it. The whole process of wanting and purchasing Apple products is getting irrational. Hence, there will be all kinds of other frustration and dissapointments when they realise it's not perfect. OS X can be weird to use. The iPhone doesn't do Bluetooth transfers. iTunes only syncs with one computer at a time, in most cases. There are *never* enough of the latest iPhones and iPads to be supplied around the world, going into 2011. Apple support and service is good, but it's nowhere near magical, and especially outside the US, it could be worse than say, Sony.
The WSJ review by Mr Mossburg is just super and a fine review of a fine product.. What comes through loud and clear. When will Apple do something about this handicap it is lugging around called AT&T? The damage it must be doing to Apple sales is very obvious . There are customers out there who would buy an iPhone in a flash, but they are holding off because of AT&T's poor quality of product.
It makes no sense at all. If I was in their shoes (I am not} i would also decline. Why would I buy a Rolls Royce grade product which only contains a small underpowered engine?"
I couldn't agree more. Assuming Apple knows this, then why would apple continue to do this? Also those potential customers may find something else over time.
Because at the end of the day Apple is, was, NEVER about DOMINANCE. They have a target of making a product, and selling a certain amount of units, making a large profit margin and a certain amount of profit. That's their modus operandi.
Right now, with the iPhone4, and iPad, internationally, Apple cannot keep up with demand, plain and simple. They simply cannot make enough iPhone4 and iPads fast enough to sell them. Could Apple ramp up production enough to fulfill demand, diversify out of ATT? Maybe, but again, they would not be going after DOMINANCE as a priority...
Add to that, Apple is historically, extremely, extremely conservative with their inventory. Maybe they got burnt somewhere along the line, but it is so ingrained in their culture to manage their inventory very, very tightly. It fuels the desirability as well.
EDIT: Apologies for my serial posting.
Finally someone really "gets" it. The whole process of wanting and purchasing Apple products is getting irrational. Hence, there will be all kinds of other frustration and dissapointments when they realise it's not perfect. OS X can be weird to use. The iPhone doesn't do Bluetooth transfers. iTunes only syncs with one computer at a time, in most cases. There are *never* enough of the latest iPhones and iPads to be supplied around the world, going into 2011. Apple support and service is good, but it's nowhere near magical, and especially outside the US, it could be worse than say, Sony.
I guess, but I think it's not so much about perfection, as it is the need for Apple to satisfy every desire instantly. They have gotten so good at delivering appealing products, that many people have come to expect them to meet all of their perceived desires, and even fantasies, and not just meet them, exceed them, and right now, this very moment. If Apple can't achieve this impossible standard, they experience a kind of betrayal. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this, and I wonder what it means for Apple. Probably nothing, but it is a strange and fascinating phenomena.
I had Verizon for years until I switched to the iPhone. I actually have had equal or better reception (Philadelphia marketplace primarily). My wife still has a Verizon phone...I can make calls at my vacation home in the mountains where she can't.
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
Amen, brother. Amen.
F*KING MADE MY WEEK. Awesome mate.
Thanks man, I love making those.
EDIT: Apologies for my serial posting.
There is a multi-quote option that works great.
That is just a laughable comment. Have you ever compared a Mac alongside a windows machine? win7 and Snow leopard are still light years apart in user experience. One is still just plain horrible.... But that's for a different thread...
I predict no iphone for Verizon until LTE ..... that's my opinion.
You made some good points, but I don't believe this to be one of them. Jay "Assmunch" Leno can tell all the AT&T jokes he wants, and some might even laugh (not me because I prefer Conan), however, the difference is whether people are laughing because they have heard people complain, or if they are having these issues with AT&T themselves.
If I am not having network issues myself, then jokes certainly aren't going to make me give up my iPhone. And if I am having network issues, I don't need a joke to tell me to change networks. I guess some people could be swayed by peer pressure in the media, but it sounds ridiculous to me.
As you can probably infer, I have had zero issues with my iPhone. I've been a happy customer of both Apple and AT&T since August 2007, and cannot imagine having a different phone. This includes usage primarily in Austin Texas, as well as Travel to Virginia, Detroit, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington DC, Seattle, and Hawaii.
No complaints here~
There is another category you leave out - those who are thinking about switching but then hear all the reports, jokes, etc. about AT&T.
Exceeded only by all the reports, jokes, etc about VZW, Sprint... face it, they all suçk.
I'm not apologizing for AT&T, in fact I won't have an iPhone because of problems I've had with AT&T. Any other carrier will do. I'll order my iPhone the moment AT&T's exclusivity runs out.
There is another category you leave out - those who are thinking about switching but then hear all the reports, jokes, etc. about AT&T. In that case the negative publicity is bad for Apple and does negatively impact the growth of the iPhone.
Until they talk to people who own the iPhone vs. all the whining on the Internet and find out that for most people it works just fine
10 times as many pre-orders as the last launch. Yup, AT&T is a fatal albatross around Apple's neck