July 9th, 2007
Apple seems to have forgotten the phone in the iPhone
I just passed 10 days of iPhone ownership after waiting in line for 24 hours and then posting my first and second impressions of the device. I was quite excited about the iPhone after finding out that the AT&T data plan was reasonably priced and gave it an honest evaluation. Although the iPhone is priced the same as high end smartphones, I tried to resist comparing it to the Windows Mobile and S60 operating systems since they blow the iPhone out of the water in terms of functionality and the iPhone is more of a high end feature phone with iPod functionality. So looking at it as a high end feature phone, I have to say the iPhone falls flat when it comes to mobile phone functionality and features. As I’ll discuss below, the free mobile phone you get when you sign up with your carrier has more functionality and performs better as a phone than the iPhone.
Here is my list of poor or missing features of the iPhone in regards to phone functionality only:
- Low volume speakerphone (basically useless at max volume through mono speaker)
- Mid volume speaker
- Tough to speed dial (at least 5 presses/slides to call one of your )
- No smart dial (filtering of contacts as you enter letters or numbers)
- Reception issues (full signal to no signal in same area)
- No instant messaging application
- Non-removable battery that cost $86 to replace from Apple
- Weak Bluetooth radio (profiles and reception with headset)
- No DUN (Bluetooth or cabled)
- No custom ringtones
- No MMS functionality
- EDGE only data even though AT&T has a national 3G network
Checking all four main U.S. wireless carriers reveals that the free offerings each has available have most, if not all, of these mobile phone features. I think several of these can be corrected by Apple firmware updates, but for US$600+ I don’t think people should have to wait to get basic phone functionality in the iPhone. Calls are clear and Visual Voicemail is a great feature, but there is too much missing to make it an acceptable mobile phone. Gmail is included in the POP email list, but why couldn’t Apple include the much more functional Gmail application you can use on just about any other mobile phone?
Disregarding the phone functionality, the iPhone is an outstanding video iPod (if you don’t mind the limited 8GB flash drive), the Google Maps application is wonderful to use, photos are fun to play with and it is a great mobile internet tablet (when you are connected to a WiFi network). The user interface and fun of using something fresh and new kept it in my hands for 10 days, but my iPhone will be going back to AT&T in the next couple of days before the 14 day trial period ends. If I was already an AT&T customer then I would most likely keep the iPhone and hold out for the updates, but as a very happy T-Mobile customer of 5 years the switch isn’t worth the cost to me at this time. I’ll take another look at it when it gets improved and am looking forward to seeing how Apple impacts the rest of the mobile phone market.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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