Sick of my iPhone
I’m thinking of switching to a Nokia — partly to connect to the ways the rest of the world is connecting, but partly cuz I’m no longer convinced of the awesomeness of the iPhone.
I bought the iPhone about three months after the release. I had resisted the urge until I unpacked my bag for work and saw an iPod, a phone, a camera. I went and bought the iPhone and dumped the other stuff from my bag, a savings of two devices, charging time and hassle, and some carried ounces off my back.
Today, however, I’m back to three devices. The iPhone camera sucks too much even for me; I tend to load it up with so many boingboing TV, TED, coolhunting videos, and the occasional West Wing for late or bleary subway rides, that I seem to never have the right music on hand for work; and the hassles of email with entourage/exchange/whatever plus my continued non-adjustment to the keyboard leave me calendarless and hesitant to answer work mails (since replies go to gmail). Yes, that last will be fixed in June (as apparently, will be the mideast problem and global warming, if you listen to the more energetic Mac rumors), but I think I’ve lost too much love for the iPhone to hold onto it.
And, oh yeah, EDGE sucks.
Is it possible that Apple, usually so well-known for providing more to customers by doing less stretched itself too thin? I don’t think I’ve ever had an Apple device that so infrequently delighted me (I mean delighted me, like making me say Nice!) and so frequently frustrated me.
The other half of the abandon iPhone equation is professional. As non-touch screen phones become more important in people’s lives (due to price point, durability, and, in developing countries, non-theft-worthiness), I feel out of touch with emerging design sensibilities and mobile behaviors. I’m not ready to go back to a crappy phone, but, seeing that the N-Series is the direction cheap phones will go rather than the iPhone, I may make yet another expensive shift.
You are so ripe for the June iPhone 2.0 software and hardware releases, its crazy.
You could wait a month and see most of your issues (camera/exchange) solved. We’ll have to wait and see on the keyboard.
Also, I think it would be nuts to ditch the iPhone so close to when we’ll get to see what the Developer Community is going to create with the SDK. Remember, your current phone was a Rev 1 for Apple in a new space (we know how that can go). You owe it to yourself to see what’s around the corner.
That being said, I do appreciate the desire to want to stay abreast of what other people are using.
I know exchange will get fixed, and I will def stick around that long . . . but how would the camera be improved? I just assumed Apple went with the cheap lens to hit a price point (and use case), and that was the source of my picto-woes.
I am not giving Julia my iPhone (so she’ll blame you) until after June, but I do think the mid-level quality of some iPhone bits takes away from its luster.
Meanwhile, I’ll have to see if I can find a sponsor to get me an N-Series . . . that still seems like the mass route. I have a hard time picturing touch screens sufficiently ruggedized to be a phone of choice.
i had an acquaintance install the 2.0 version on my iphone, so that i could see the new app i’m developing. it has exchange, and i don’t know if this is already old news to you, but the word on macrumors.com is that they’ll come out with new models in june: one with real keyboard, one with better camera and video capability.
there are things that underwhelm me with the iphone, but i find it so, so much easier to use a touchscreen. stupid softkeys. what a usability nightmare. i want to kiss my iphone every day.
It’s Nseries, not N-Series.
If you want the phone for a camera, then you can’t go wrong with an N95 or N82. They are real point and shoots on a par with a dedicated camera. But if you still want to have good email handling, I’d look elsewhere. There’s a reason all those abbrev. have crept into text messaging. 9-keying email is torture.
I use the iPhone for two primary purposes: phone calls and web browsing. Checking email and SMS are secondary. The camera is fine when I don’t have anything better handy. I just hope they fix the completely broken MMS support when the new software revision arrives.