iPhone…Back to Reality
June 30th, 2007 by Carolyn SchukGiven the Apple iPhone build-up, I was surprised to wake up this morning and find the world pretty much the same as it was yesterday, before Steve Jobs and his iPhone opened to us the promised land of infinite coolness.
Even my 16 year-old, a graduate student in the school of cool, found the advent of the iPhone a “whatever.” Perhaps it’s his experience with two iPods that died promptly after the warranty ran out that gives him a healthy distrust of Apple’s newest toy. Now he plays music on his $99 Razr phone.
It seems we’re not the only doubters. Today New York Times Business columnist Joe Nocera joined the fray as a skeptic, taking a close look at the iPhone’s non-replaceable battery and its snails-pace Internet access (to reduce battery drain, no less!). Nocera also describes the Kafta-esque experience of talking to Apple’s PR drones.
The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights also took a look at the iPhone and found it wanting. In addition to the battery problem, the Foundation notes that AT&T and Apple have written a whopping $175 cancellation fee into the contract if you terminate within two years – as you might be tempted to when the battery’s likely one-year useful life runs out.
For the record, my four year-old Palm Treo may be the apogee of un-cool, but the battery has not needed replacement yet.
June 30th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Amazing that an overpriced, non-replaceable battery-toting device called the iPod has overwhelmingly captured the market from the masses of Rio’s, Zune’s, and Creative’s, at various times called iPod killers in terms of compatibility, expandibility, and cost.
Amazing that there are lines around the block clamoring for an overpriced, non-replaceable battery-toting device called the iPhone, despite the naysayers calling it no match for the plethora of current and future phones in terms of compatibility, expandibilty, and cost.
Apparently, there is no dearth of so-called pundits who claim that Apple’s products are doomed. And so far, they’ve been horribly wrong lately. (In addition, lack of vision apparently doesn’t decrease with age; the above author’s 16-year-old doesn’t get it either, but I can see why: He enjoys music on a Razr, for goodness’ sake! Perhaps it’s just genetic.)