You’re comparison of the phone’s camera to a Macbook’s RAM is boneheaded to say the least.

You’re seriously arguing that the iPhone, a device whose primary function is to make phone calls, is as dependent on a good Camera as a laptop is on having enough RAM??

Give me a break, that’s an iPhone hater right there and the mark of someone who hasn’t spent any real time integrating the iPhone into their lifestyle and workflow.

And FM Radio? Again a useful feature, but at what cost? Why doesn’t the phone have TV Tuner as well??

Disclaimer: I do have an iPhone and am an Apple Fanboy. I do believe that Steve Jobs is the second coming. Peace!

I think the reason we have cameras in our cell phones is that people do think its an important feature. And, more importantly, it’s nice being able to take a decent picture even if I didn’t bring my real digital system camera; that one I don’t bring with me all the time, the cell phone I do.

Totally serious about radio: it beats podcasts or web radio any day. Sorry about lack of decent radio channels in Germany.

The drawbacks you bring up are certainly valid, but the difference is that, except for the battery, they are software issues which could easily be updated; the things in my post are rather larger issues that I’m sure Apple just won’t see to.

I think that the camera and FM Radio aren’t really important for a mobile.

The camera: I use cameras on mobile phones only to take pictures of the people in my address book. If I want to take real pictures I take a real camera. They are always better. And I don’t want to pay for complicated optics in my phone.

The FM Radio: Are you serious? I don’t know how it’s in Sweden but in Germany I can chose between crappy, more crappy and even more crappy radio stations. So podcasts or web radio is what I really want. FM sucks. On web radio or podcasts I can chose what to hear and not only shitty AC.

So this would be no reason for me.

There are a few other things Apple could have done better:
- The battery is crap. My phone is about 4 months old and the battery does last less than 24 hours stand by.
- Can’t send contacts via sms to other phones.
- Can’t flip the keyboard to wide format in applications where I type a lot (sms and mail)
- No clip board (not really important, but would be convinient).
- Could be more responsive.

Inspite of these drawbacks it’s still the best phone I ever had (though I would never buy one, it’s form my employer). And I’m no apple fanboy (I have a real computer ;-)).

Both.

Oh man, I couldn’t agree more. It’s such a waste, and for the most of the time, completely and utterly uncalled for.

As Eric Meyer says “STOP IT. Stop it right now.

The fact that optimizing pages for an iPhone makes the development of such specialized pages attractive in no way excuses lockout of other users. I might be willing to entertain the argument if the iPhone’s browser were some specialized non-web contraption. It’s not. It’s a full-fledged XHTML+CSS+DOM browser that happens to lag a bit in some implementation areas and won’t run some plugins.”

Why do the iPhone fans go moist at iPhone-only sites, yet berate those who who made “This site optimised for IE5.5 at 1024x 768 resolution”?

iPhone-only sites are almost certainly the primary cause of web-transmitted willy cancer in the world today. And that’s a fact.

Andreas (in reply to your two comments),

Oh definitely, some people will always complain, no matter what. What I wanted to cover were things I really think they failed that shouldn’t be problems on newly released phones.

In regards to the camera: 2 megapixel is sufficient for some web-use, but I really think people want the option for more. And the amount of megapixels is only resolution, but looking at megapixel quantity in conjunction with lens quality and manufactures, the iPhone is far behind the other cell phone vendors.

And, just to mention it, getogagging and uploading to photo services are also provided by iPhone competitors.

BARTdG,

I know, it was to provoke. But to be more serious, I do think that the camera and its quality in a cell phone becomes more and more important.

Harmen,

First, let me say that you (and everyone else) who is happy about the iPhone, I’m glad for your sake. I don’t want to try and persuade anyone, I want you to be content with your product.

The iPhone is indeed about overall user experience, where it has had enormous success and set a new standard for other cell phone manufactures to follow suit. I’m just disappointed that you can’t get that together with the best hardware and single features, which is somewhat I’m ordinarily used to getting from Apple.

Martin,

I’m not sure where contracts are necessary, but my impression has been that there are only a few countries where a contract isn’t necessary (basically, countries where the law prohibits Apple from only offering such deals).

Streaming radio is of course an option, but most subscriptions don’t have a flat rate, and also, there’s the risk of gaps, less quality etc. FM radio works fine for the rest of the world, and we’re not talking about a lot of electronics here to make it work.

Absolutely right about megapixels, and it’s just one of many factors in getting a better result.

I’d still say that the pricing information is completely irrelevant, however.

Adam,

Cool, thanks for sharing!

mikey,

Man, I can promise you I have never thought about from that perspective!

Dave,

Completely agree about the wanted features. The lack of copy-and-paste with the iPhone is just a joke. But yeah, for some people user experience is everything, where others want better stand-alone features.

Lars,

Absolutely!

When I listen to the radio it is usually sports or news I want. FM-radio really is the best option. Especially when you need to pay for ever byte one downloads.

As with any device, different people look for different things. Many people live the iPhone, but personally I need a phone that has at least all the features of the phone I had 5 years ago (Nokia 7610). For example I want to:

Record videos
Listen to radio
Send / receive MMS (picture messages)
Set any MP3 as a ringtone
Carry spare batteries with me
Send a text to 2+ people (I’ve heard the 3G iPhone can do this now!)
Copy and paste
Write software on the phone, for the phone
Run programs in the background
Send photos with Bluetooth
Transfer files to any PC without special drivers

On the other hand, the iPhone has a superb screen and great usability. It’s crazy what people will buy just because of the Jobs effect.

so, the camera had to GO!!

luckily, the iphone 3G was actually designed to come apart
and removing the camera was a piece of cake!!

work is happy and i’m happy!!

(i’ve got a real camera which doesn’t have any of the limitations
of the tiny cell phone based cameras.)

and about forwarding email, mine seems to be able to do this.
haven’t had to figure out mailing lists yet, since i don’t ever forward to
a list.

As far as radio is concerned, ever heard of Pandora or the other streaming Music and radio services for the iPhone? They allow you to receive radio or straight new music channels from the other side of the planet which isn’t a bad alternative. Of course also being able to subscribe to any of the 60,000+ free audio and/or video podcasts on the iTunes Store or from iTunes U on demand and when you want in whatever area of interest you decide really does leave the poor old static-ridden AM/FM trannie in the dust.

I agree on the camera issue to some extent but with the proviso that cramming more megapixels in to a camera which still has such a tiny lens is not going to make as much a difference as you might hope.

On pricing, Apple mentioned the up-front cost, because that is all people ever criticised about the original iPhone while they ignored the industry-leading price of the unlimited data plan. Some people are just never satisfied.

-Mart

It’s not really about the features. Most features are also present on other mobile phones (sometimes even in a better form, as you say in your article), although some features are, on the other hand, much better than on other phones (think about the Internet browser (Safari rocks the socks off most other mobile browsers), the App Store and the built-in iPod).

But no, it’s mostly about the user experience. When I first bought my iPhone, I spent the entire evening playing with my new gadget. Playing, not thinking. Not once did I have a hard time finding out where a certain command was or how a certain feature worked.
For some reason Apple manages time and time again to provide such an elegant, simple user interface that just works. I’ve always been a fan of Nokia’s interface design, but Apple just tops it.

But, nonetheless, I think you bring up valid points. Not necessarily points that affect me personally (I don’t use my phone’s camera a lot, and I’m the kind of person who wants to own the music he listens to ;)), but definitely valid points.

After using my iPhone a couple of weeks it’s obvious Apple still has lots to learn when it comes to mobile phone development, but with what I’ve experienced I have good hopes. I’m confident Apple will keep releasing software updates to make their product better. They’re gonna have to, because it certainly isn’t perfect yet. Beyond the points you bring up in your article, there’s for instance the following: no horizontal keyboard whilst typing texts or emails, no deleting individual texts (you have to delete the entire conversation with a certain contact), and try to install a ringtone without paying for it!

But, as I said, I’m confident Apple continues to improve their product, and to me it’s already a breeze working with it, I wouldn’t want to go back!
By the way, mine was only € 50,- together with a 2-year subscription. Considering the way and frequency I use my phone that’s not too shabby.

Though its a shame it doesnt have autofocus. Jeez.

Keep in mind, photography is the art of painting and capturing the light. If you focus on that you can make great pictures with any camera.

Come on, Robert, a camera is in no way as important to a cell phone as a processor to a notebook. I’ve had cell phones with a camera since 4 years or so, and haven’t even made 30 photos.

Apart from that, I agree with you on most things. Mandatory subscription and battery life were my main reasons that I decided to get an iPod Touch instead (get MobileFinder from the AppStore and you ‘ve got yourself 32 GB USB storage).