Five Downsides of iPhone 3G
Messaged on 2008 under iPhone Hacks, iPhone Images, iPhone News, iPhone Planet, iPhone Tips, iPhone Tricks | 2 CommentsThere is a lot to be said for all the positives of the new iPhone 3g… but lets take a moment to focus on some of the negative aspects…
- First and foremost (to ease us into the bad) here is a bittersweet problem -
With bandwidth being as expensive as it is in South Africa – One really wonders what the overall total cost of ownership would be for running an iPhone in this country.Recent international figures indicate that consumer usage of bandwidth may be up to 30 times higher than on a regular phone.
All that ooohing and ahh’ing over a rich web experience and the host of available things to do on the phone would undoubtedly lead to more usage and may result in overall prices. - The prospect of having GPS functionality on your phone is great, but the truth is that the A-GPS technology that is present in the new iPhone (a technology which factors in hot-spot and cell phone tower location data into positioning calculations) is only really as good as the information the iPhone is being fed. Does Vodacom have this functionality present on their cell towers, and if so, how wide-spread is it?Then there are the maps, which are a separate issue altogether, what map data will the phone make use of, can it be updated, would there be a choice of 3rd party mapping, and how complete are those maps?
- On the iPhone (1st Gen) – There was also an apparent issue with connecting to a laptop via bluetooth, to use the phone as a dial-up modem for laptop surfing. A few hacks were discussed to make this a reality. Has that issue been resolved in the iPhone 3g?The new specifications are still reporting to have “Bluetooth support for headsets only” – This isn’t nearly enough of a standard if the iPhone wants to compete with the other vendors in this arena.
- The battery life is not actually as long as it reportedly is the iPhone specs informational pages. Some people see the iPhone as an expensive teenagers toy, whilst others hope to embrace the host of features it offers to use it as a successful business tool. How will the limited battery life effect this?The battery is also not user-replaceable and this could lead to more expensive ownership in the long-term.
- Video Camera & MMS – There is still no video recording, and the only apparent way to send images from the phone is via email, and not by MMS like some of the other phone vendors allow.
Some people were “put-out” by how quickly the iPhone 3g was put out after the iPhone 2g – My gut tells me that Apple have done this new version of phone largely in response to the wide spread jail-breaking of the 1st generation iPhone, and in an attempt to drive market penitration in many more countries. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if a 3rd generation of iPhone was to hit the shelves a year and a half – two years from now…
by psychocrackpot, on July 16 2008 @ 11:00 am
Response to your points.
1. Wi-fi -> That’s how most people will browse the internet and check their mail. Data bundles are not that expensive anymore. 1gig will more than even when watching youtube videos. You’re probably going to use your pc / mac + itunes to download your music, videos and games. The iphone does not force you to use bandwidth, so that a invalid point.
2. The GPS functionality on the first gen iPhone relied on cellphone towers, and yes, Vodacom does support it. The iPhone 3G is a full GPS device that relies on google maps for the location data, but TomTom (the GPS manufacturer) has released a full turn by turn App for the iphone, allowing you to download the street maps, and use it just like any other GPS device for sale here.
3. Bluetooth connectivity to Mac. First I thought it was a bumber as well. But after using the iPhone I realised that it’s really not neccessary to connect your iphone to your mac. You generally do this to check your mail or a website very quickly, when you do not have your normal internet connection available. Now you do all those things on your iphone… no need to even open up your laptop or startup your mac. Just use the iphone to do those quick tasks.
4. Battery life is exactly as claimed if you do not jailbreak your phone and run apps that run daemons in the background.
5. Video + MMS. I will just give that. Many people point this out to me. I have a decent digital camera that takes decent video clips (there are plenty of apps enabling video clips btw). I have only ever sent 1 mms in my life. How many have you sent?
by Switch, on July 16 2008 @ 8:19 pm
@psychocrackpot – I think you might have missed the point of the post – We are not here to give the iPhone a hard time, but it must be said that there are things that it cannot do, and things that people should consider before commiting themselves to a purchase.
You make a good argument, but to point #1, there is just no telling how users will interact with their iPhones. I think peoples usage will differ. I for one will definitely be doing more throughput of data through a mobile device than I have ever before, and across the board Vodacom will realise larger turnovers from data than before.
To point #2 – The 1st Gen iPhone did not have GPS and was not available in South Africa.
Point #3 – The worry here is that people who cannot get flash support might like to use their mobile phones to connect to the web using bluetooth – This will not work by default without tinkering with the software (which is strongly discouraged by Apple).
Point #4 – Battery life is down from the previous generation of iPhone, there is no doubting that.
Also, if you find yourself in a hilly environment (like KZN) you may well find the loss and regaining of the 3g network drains your battery faster than one would expect. (This is speculation based on previous experience with MTN and an HTC).
Point #5 – Yeah, people don’t really send that many MMS’s – It’s true. I personally have an SLR digital camera which due to its technology is unable to take video. So the only device I currently have that can record video is a cell phone and USB webcam. There is a work-around about not being able to send MMS’s, you can always save the image and email it. However, this is something which the phone does not do, and people should know before queuing up for ages.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a number of pluses with regard to the iPhone; I, for one, will undoubtedly follow the press and hook myself up with one shortly after they have been released.