Apple says iPhone competitors still fail to compete

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  • Reply 61 of 99
    tofinotofino Posts: 697member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post


    Here's to wishing you and your MobileMe a long happy relationship... I'm sure it's a fine service, but just not for me.



    thank you for your kind wishes and i'm glad we're on the same page on the benefits of personal choice.
  • Reply 62 of 99
    gwydiongwydion Posts: 1,083member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tofino View Post


    mobileme works for me personally, since i work on three different macs and the convenience to have my calendar synced alone would be worth paying something for. i guess it depends on how many features of mobileme you use and at what point you feel you get value for the money.



    Yep, the mileage varies, the feature I used more of MobileMe was Preferences Sync accross computers but I tought that paying 70? for it was a waste of money. As you have said, it's a personal taste, I use GMail and Google calendar and Dropbox/Live Mesh for storage and syncing of folders.
  • Reply 63 of 99
    phizzphizz Posts: 142member
    A lot of people forget that us (the gadget fans, technology freaks, geeks, whatever) are a very small percentage of Apple's target market. The iPhone is an incredible device - my mother can use it, my 3 year old son can use it. And for me, it's a pleasure to use. Sure, there's a few features I'd personally like to see in there, but am I going to sacrifice all I love about the iPhone to get these few features on a WM/Android/BB phone? Hell, no.
  • Reply 64 of 99
    justflybobjustflybob Posts: 1,337member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ajmac25 View Post


    Apple is all about brand and quality. The weakest point is AT&T as their carrier in the USA. AT&T is holding back the true potential of this phone.I also agree that apps are fine, but most business customers want a phone that works. Not cutesy apps that serve no purpose. Give me a great phone and give me great service. Look how the customer uses their phone and design one around that experience.



    Yeah, we get it. But seriously, who else would you use? Verizon's version of the iPhone would be so crippled unless you coughed up $10/mo for this and another $15/mo for that, and oh, you want to use WiFi? That's another $20/mo still.



    I did feel gouged at first with the voice/data plan thing. But now I realize my overall bill is much lower than it was with Verizon for voice and messaging only!



    Steve was faced with the nearly impossible task of trying to get ANY carrier to understand the iPhone, it's capabilities, and the eventual upside in carrier profits. In the end, AT&T was the only one willing to step up to the plate.



    I'm not a huge fan of AT&T, but my experience has probably been far better than many. Plus I have constant WiFi at my office and home, so no worries, really.



    Lost calls? Haven't had one. No, really.



    As for the Apps? It will always take some time for developers to jump on board a new platform, especially when it comes to business users. Breaking through the in-house IT barrier can be nearly impossible at times. Look how long it took the Blackberry to become a standard in any area requiring secure communication. It will come in time.



    The Apps I want to develop wouldn't sell right now unless I had a contract from whichever company I would want to target the App for. So, for now, it's high content games and utilities. But you will see considerable development in the business sector. Just remember how long it took for Macs to show up in suitland. SeaFirst Bank in Seattle was one of the first to go nearly all-Mac in the later half of the 80's, and they took it on the chin when the Mac Office network was such a sordid flop. Give it time. Like the voice says... "If you build it, they will come."
  • Reply 65 of 99
    My iPod touch is the handiest gadget I've ever owned. It's ease of use and functionality are unsurpassed by anything else out there.

    On a related note, my buddy has a Zune and touch. He tried to upgrade his Zune, and now it is locked. He said he's now sold on the touch and other Apple products, and he's ready to buy two new 15-inch MBP when they are released.
  • Reply 66 of 99
    It's a bit annoying that Tim Cook quickly dismissed all of the iPhone's competition. I am certainly interested in how the Droid will turn out. More to the point, I'm interested in how the Android platform will fare. Or WebOS.



    Frankly, as a phone, the iPhone is not really that good. It's got some usability issues. You have to look at the display to make a call. And which number did that person in my contacts just call me from? (perhaps I missed a feature there). And others I won't bore you with.



    Those are nits that I do hope Apple addresses and fixes. Well not much you can do with pure touch screen input vs a tactile key pad. I'm fine with that. The benefits of the multi-touch display far outweigh the absence of a "real" keypad. Something that takes up a lot of space, btw.



    My attraction to the iPhone is the SDK. That sucker sold me on it. You see, from my point of view, the iPhone isn't just a phone with extraneous features required by business folk. To me, the iPhone is a pocket sized general purpose computer.



    COMPUTER! This is true of all smart phones. But there is one little item on the iPhone that is not shared by the others. That would be the OS. iPhone OS is a rather large subset of Mac OS X. Lose Carbon, swap Cocoa for Cocoa Touch, dump a few other desktop features not needed or feasible in a tiny device and you are still left with a rather large subset of shared code.



    A bunch of this shared code got moved into Snow Leopard. Core Animation, Core Image, and so on. The shared code between iPhone OS and OS X is damned impressive. There is some serious synergy that Microsoft lost out on trying to make Windows mobile. Apple got it right. Your iPhone runs a Unix based OS on hardware that is more powerful than a typical desktop PC of ten years ago. It costs less too.



    Android does not yet run any desktop computer. Neither does WebOS. Windows Mobile in all its SKUs is not really the Windows of today. Not unless we are partying like it's 1999.



    So the Xcode tools I use to develop for the iPhone are the same ones that are used for developing OS X and all the iPhone OS itself. Third parties just get a trimmed down SDK. An SDK that had more added to it at the last update. That wasn't just bug fixes. More functionality for third party app developers was added.



    Sorry to be so long winded here. I've got two sentences left. The iPhone isn't successful for what it isn't. It's successful for what it is.
  • Reply 67 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande View Post


    It seems a bit like you've missed out on the core focuses that enable Apple products to become so successful. Apple designs products for the masses?products which almost everyone can pick up, use, and enjoy.



    What are you going to do with a 480x800 display? It would be foolish to make the device larger, so instead all the existing content is rendered a little more crisply? At the cost of battery life and increased cost? Not worth it on that scale, especially from the perspective of Apple and the normal consumer (who is not represented here).



    Battery life is great depending on how you use it.



    You complain about battery life and go on to complain about multi-tasking? I would love to have the ability to set apps to run in the background, but that's fine because I understand the consequences of allowing it. The 3GS could probably handle it pretty well (though it would be bad on earlier models due to memory constraints). A further souped up iPhone down the road would be an even more excellent candidate. Regardless, regular users wouldn't understand why their phone was tearing through battery life, and the people who do understand it would still bitch about battery life, even as they've got ten programs running in the background.



    The GUI is fine. It is easy to use. You're lecturing the wrong company about GUI design. Talk about an arm-chair CEO.





    I'm a very satisfied iPhone user, but you're being a bit harsh. DaHarder raised some legitimate points about the iPhone that absolutely could, should, and hopefully will be improved.

    First off, the resolution DaHarder mentioned would not be infeasible on the iPhone's screen (though one could easily make the screen bigger without making the entire device bigger; look at all the wasted space at the top of the screen around the earpiece and compare that to what HTC have done with the HD2). Almost all of HTC's current smartphones use at least an 800 by 400 resolution and don't really have bigger screens than the iPhone (I think the TP2 has a 3.6 inch screen, so it's only 0.1 inch bigger than the iPhone's). Have you ever actually looked at one of these devices? They're absolutely gorgeous, and the iPhone's screen really seems quite archaic in comparison - why wouldn't such great screens be "worth it" for the "normal consumer"? Of course, what the screens are actually depicting isn't that great (Windows Mobile...), and they're resistive, but the resolution itself is fantastic.

    Furthermore, I don't think battery life would be that much of an issue. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a nice 800x400 AMOLED-screen might even consume less power than the iPhone's current LCD.



    Multitasking would be nice and could easily be implemented in such a way that users will be aware of its potential downsides. Hell, just put a toggle into the settings app, leave it off by default and display a warning message when the user switches it on. This is not rocket science.



    Some other stuff I wish Apple would add to the iPhone:

    1) Widgets. Say what you will about Android, but the widgets in HTC's Sense UI make certain parts of the OS much more accessible. For example, I togge Wifi on and off about five times a day on my iPhone. To do this, I have to quit the app I'm currently running, go into the settings-app, go to the Wifi-settings and toggle Wifi. That's just ridiculous. I'd love to be able to put a widget onto my homescreen which allows me to directly change certain settings and it's unacceptable that I would have to jailbreak just to get this simple functionality.

    2) Allow 3rd party-apps to interface with native apps. I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself correctly here, but the issue is that, for example, Word documents attached to e-mails can't be opened by a 3rd party-app like QuickOffice of Documents To Go directly from the built-in mail-app. Instead, I either have to use my iDisk or Airsharing or an arcane workaround provided by the Quickoffice-developers. That's also ridiculous. Office documents are sent to me via e-mail every day and I'd like to be able to edit them without having to jump through hoops.

    3) This is a rather minor point, but it's still bugging me: I'd love for Apple to install a small LED-notification light near the earpiece. Even my old Nokia had that, and it would inform me of missed calls, new messages etc.



    I think you should acknowledge that even satisfied iPhone users can have legitimate gripes about the device. Nothing is perfect, and there's nothing wrong with expecting Apple to constantly improve an already fantastic device. It's very disingenuous to meet even legitimate criticism with an attitude like "well, you just don't get what the iPhone is all about". Also, how would any of the features you so readily discount - like multitasking or a better display - impede the iPhone's biggest strength, namely that it's a product "that everyone can pick up and enjoy"?
  • Reply 68 of 99
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    After the iPhone debuted in 2007, competitors rushed to emulate the touchscreen capabilities of the device. So far, numerous competitors have emerged, but all have failed to capture the buzz of the iPhone.



    Because they've failed to get just one really simple thing: it's neither touch screen, nor form factor, that is actually selling so good.
  • Reply 69 of 99
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Only the colour blind would not appreciate the difference between 65 thousand and 16 million colours...



    ...so how's it look when you're out in the sun?



    You really must have to squint when you're poking it with a stick.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post


    On Verizon we have the HTC Imagio (480 x 800)...



    ...far more attractive/intuitive TouchFlo 3D GUI



  • Reply 70 of 99
    Certainly Apple got the fundamentals right, but the iPhone was (and still is) lacking in some areas. My old phone seems to be able to pull off these features:



    1. Profiles - where did these go? Used to be 2 clicks away on my old phone

    2. Customisation - with ringtones and message alerts, as opposed to using Apple defaults

    3. File management - the ability to use the iPhone's memory as a usb would be nice

    4. Bluetooth - to add to 3. being able to send my mates files via bluetooth would be a pretty handy addition



    Apple runs a closed ship, probably why the iPhone isn't very 'open' but no one can deny it's success. The fact that it's un-customisable kinda adds to the phone's ubiquity - it's easy to recognise if someone has an iPhone upon hearing their ringtone!



    I'd like to see backgrounding for music apps, and more useful and practical improvements to the software as opposed to bells and whistles. I'm at least glad Apple aren't on the 'phone cam megapixel battlefield'
  • Reply 71 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    This seems like spin to me, seems like other folks are catching up.



    I can only hope this is the dawn of multi processing on the iPhone, and many other goodies to come!



    I don't think it's so much spin, as they're just saying that the competition has really come even close to being a threat to the iPhone, which is definitely true.
  • Reply 72 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post


    HTC has truly done a masterful job with the Sense (tm) UI on the Hero.



    It's represents the absolute state-of-the art in handset UI design/execution, and Android (tm) is shaping up to be the mobile OS to beat.



    The iPhone 3G also has its charms, namely the App Store, but the abysmal battery autonomy, washed-out display, dated UI, fixed storage capacity, and the lack of other core spartphone features left me longing for a more complete/advanced handset, and my iPhone 3GS simply isn't it.



    To each his own. IMO, the Hero and Pre are pretty wonderful devices in terms of OS and software. They have capabilities to expand on. However, their hardware and OS integration is shitty save Android. With Android's future on laptops and it being under Google, I'm pretty sure it'll be very successful if Google works on its hardware design.
  • Reply 73 of 99
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robodude View Post


    Certainly Apple got the fundamentals right, but the iPhone was (and still is) lacking in some areas. My old phone seems to be able to pull off these features:



    1. Profiles - where did these go? Used to be 2 clicks away on my old phone

    2. Customisation - with ringtones and message alerts, as opposed to using Apple defaults

    3. File management - the ability to use the iPhone's memory as a usb would be nice

    4. Bluetooth - to add to 3. being able to send my mates files via bluetooth would be a pretty handy addition



    Apple runs a closed ship, probably why the iPhone isn't very 'open' but no one can deny it's success. The fact that it's un-customisable kinda adds to the phone's ubiquity - it's easy to recognise if someone has an iPhone upon hearing their ringtone!



    I'd like to see backgrounding for music apps, and more useful and practical improvements to the software as opposed to bells and whistles. I'm at least glad Apple aren't on the 'phone cam megapixel battlefield'



    The first three I agree with, though I would bet you that Apple felt the Profiles feature in other phones was somewhat lame and that physical ringer on/off switch was sufficient. Still, I can see how some people would benefit from profiles even though I wouldn?t use them myself.



    The Bluetooth file sharing feature, like MMS, is a lame method to transfer files to crappy phones that don?t have proper internet and email capabilities. Apple is using Bluetooth strictly for accessories so I doubt that antiquated feature will ever happen. When Apple added the IR port on there Macs for use with the Apple Remote several years back they didn?t allow for two way data transfer. I suspect that Bluetooth file transfers will suffer the same fate on the iPhone.



    If you want it, just jailbreak your iPhone and install iBluetooth using Cydia.







    Top of my list is a much better messaging system. The small overlay was okay when the original iPhone came out, but now with Push Notifications I can?t see most of the text in the bubble, and it only shown if there is only one message. With two or more you just see names. WebOS and Android do this right. This needs to be redesigned from the ground up to be robust, with items accessible quickly and option for the items ordered chronologically or by app/person sending the message.



    Second on my list is to make the Mail app concat the email accounts into a single Inbox. Having to keep backing out of accounts is a needless chore.
  • Reply 74 of 99
    gwydiongwydion Posts: 1,083member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Top of my list is a much better messaging system. The small overlay was okay when the original iPhone came out, but now with Push Notifications I can?t see most of the text in the bubble, and it only shown if there is only one message. With two or more you just see names. WebOS and Android do this right. This needs to be redesigned from the ground up to be robust, with items accessible quickly and option for the items ordered chronologically or by app/person sending the message.



    I would trash Push Notifications
  • Reply 75 of 99
    "As I state before, Apple's iPhone is a fine device, but few 'real' advancement to previous smartphone capbility has been added over these 3 generations, and it's actually behind many of the more advanced offerings available today - from a technological standpoint."



    If you really own those phones than you are either being paid to post negatively or you are just trying to get people going.



    Say what you will, but the truth is the truth. The iPhone is AMAZING.
  • Reply 76 of 99
    gwydiongwydion Posts: 1,083member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hollywood View Post


    "As I state before, Apple's iPhone is a fine device, but few 'real' advancement to previous smartphone capbility has been added over these 3 generations, and it's actually behind many of the more advanced offerings available today - from a technological standpoint."



    If you really own those phones than you are either being paid to post negatively or you are just trying to get people going.



    Say what you will, but the truth is the truth. The iPhone is AMAZING.



    And a gadget can be amazing but at the same time can be behind others gadgets.
  • Reply 77 of 99
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gwydion View Post


    I would trash Push Notifications



    Please elaborate.
  • Reply 78 of 99
    gwydiongwydion Posts: 1,083member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Please elaborate.



    PN it's only an adhoc system built by Apple because they don't want to have applications to run in background.



    It's stupid that an application like Pocketinformant has to use a server to trigger an alarm having the data localy.



    I have an appointment or a task with an alarm. If I don't have internet connection the alarm doesn't trigger.
  • Reply 79 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    The first three I agree with, though I would bet you that Apple felt the Profiles feature in other phones was somewhat lame and that physical ringer on/off switch was sufficient. Still, I can see how some people would benefit from profiles even though I wouldn?t use them myself.



    The Bluetooth file sharing feature, like MMS, is a lame method to transfer files to crappy phones that don?t have proper internet and email capabilities. Apple is using Bluetooth strictly for accessories so I doubt that antiquated feature will ever happen. When Apple added the IR port on there Macs for use with the Apple Remote several years back they didn?t allow for two way data transfer. I suspect that Bluetooth file transfers will suffer the same fate on the iPhone.



    If you want it, just jailbreak your iPhone and install iBluetooth using Cydia.







    Top of my list is a much better messaging system. The small overlay was okay when the original iPhone came out, but now with Push Notifications I can?t see most of the text in the bubble, and it only shown if there is only one message. With two or more you just see names. WebOS and Android do this right. This needs to be redesigned from the ground up to be robust, with items accessible quickly and option for the items ordered chronologically or by app/person sending the message.



    Second on my list is to make the Mail app concat the email accounts into a single Inbox. Having to keep backing out of accounts is a needless chore.



    I agree with your point about Bluetooth file sharing (and even MMS to an extend), which is precisely why I'd like to see it. The ratio of crappy phones is too much to ignore, it's practical to be able to share files with everyone else, while waiting for them to catch up. I'm yet to jailbreak my iPhone, I might consider it after my contract is up, but overall it works great so there's little benefit.



    I suspect messages will be vastly improved with 4.0, but on a more basic level I'm not too sure about chat style text messages. While it does look good and is more organised than the old way, threads take a while to load. I'm wondering if there is (or will be) a way to search text messages.



    The iPhone represents somewhat of a paradigm shift in regards to computing - it's a technological swiss army knife. Having each app do one thing, and do it really well, is a better approach than having convoluted, feature-packed applications (although on the other hand, I'd still like a mail + contacts + calendar combo on OS X).
  • Reply 80 of 99
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gwydion View Post


    PN it's only an adhoc system built by Apple because they don't want to have applications to run in background.



    The original and 3G iPhone couldn?t handle running 3rd-party background apps along with all the Apple apps that run in the background while maintaining a viable unit. If you don?t want to use PNS then don?t but I have 12 apps that use it with 6 that are on at all time, along with Push email the phone working, often with the iPod in use while using Safari. How exactly can I have a device last all day or not stale if I had a half dozen background apps running at all time.



    The big thing about the Palm Pre is the background apps, which isn?t quite true since it?s all just Webkit running in different tabs, like always being in Safari on the iPhone, yet Palm has stated they will release a PNS. It?s the smartest way to handle multiple apps at once.



    That doesn?t meant that background apps don?t have there place and won?t be coming to the iPhone. I think it will arrive next year with v4.0 and be available for the 3GS and forward. The 128MB of RAM in the first two iPhones simply isn?t sufficient, but the 256MB does have the room for the background apps to run effectively.



    Quote:

    It's stupid that an application like Pocketinformant has to use a server to trigger an alarm having the data localy.



    I have an appointment or a task with an alarm. If I don't have internet connection the alarm doesn't trigger.



    Running in the background is not the best solution to solve your problem as it creates others. Apple allowing the iPhone iCal access via the SDK so that your alarms can be triggered would save you from running additional processes while giving you alarms. Since it can sync with iCal once those alarms are synced over then you shouldn?t even need the PocketInformant?s PN active. Still, I understand your point about background apps being useful, but I don?t understand why you have to pooh-pooh PNS in the process.
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