TechCrunch: “But every single day I have some kind of AT&T issue. And many of the aforementioned people I know do too. So rather than making us pay the $150 for this device, why not just send one to every customer living in areas that you yourselves admit has service “below our standards“?” – Yep, that’s right, AT&T has a device you can pay $150.00 for that will use your existing broadband connection so your AT&T based service is better. What the? So, get this, most folks pay around $120.00 per month for the “honor” of using the iPhone, they could care less about the service provider, unless that provider’s service is horrible. Instead of fixing their network in San Francisco and New York they’ve found a way to make a profit off of it. Wow, just wow.
Let your money do the talking
Look, I don’t have this issue with AT&T where I live. The network seems to work just fine most of the time, cellular still has a long way to go to match the quality we get with land lines. Here’s the thing. Either you live with the poor network, or move to a different carrier. Yeah, it’s that simple. Ahhh, there’s a catch. You can’t take your iPhone with you. That one thing is keeping people on a network they’re unhappy with. Another wow. Really? You’re picking your network because you won’t give up your iPhone?
If you won’t let your money do the talking because of the device, should you complain about the service?
There are other phones
I don’t actually own an iPhone, I have a Palm Centro. It works for me. I only have voice and text services so the device isn’t as important, I just need something with a QWERTY keyboard. Sure I’d like to have one, but I’m not yet willing to play the extra price for the service. At one point back in the summer I’d looked at switching to Sprint because of their great pricing. You can get the same services; unlimited text, and data, with 450 voice minutes for $70.00. Sprint, as you may know, had an exclusive deal with Palm. The Palm Pre is an amazing smart phone, in fact I think it’s the second best smart phone on the market. Of course I think the iPhone is better, but the Pre is a great number two! I know they’re in trouble, and folks have criticized their hardware, but they do have an amazing operating system in WebOS, and they’re not going away anytime soon. If you want to spend a little more and get what most consider the best cellular carrier in the country you can now get the Palm Pre Plus through Verizon and you can tether with up to five devices. Nice.
What if?
If you’re an iPhone user and you could use your phone on Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile, what would you do? Would you switch in a heartbeat? My brother is a Verizon fanboi so he lives with the phones he can get his hands on. I’m not convinced he’s liked any of his smart phones because he keeps buying new ones. I know, I just know, he’s waiting for that glorious day to come! The day the iPhone is available on all the major carriers, then I’d put money on him buying one the day it’s available. I also know people that are living with AT&T service, because of the iPhone, and are due to commit to a new two year deal, but won’t do it because they’re hoping the exclusive iPhone deal will AT&T will lapse and they can switch carriers. Interesting isn’t it.
Yeah, people love the iPhone.
8 replies on “How we love the iPhone”
Great post, bro. I agree with pretty much everything you said including the part where you say I’d grab an iPhone if it was available on the Verizon network. I love my DROID, but the iPhone experience to this point has been better.
You know I’m carrying both devices at the moment, and I can tell you that AT&T coverage isn’t even close to Verizons. I’ve had more dopped calls in the 3 weeks I’ve been carrying the iPhone than I can remember having over the past several years with Verizon. Just sayin’.
By the way, the Palm Pre is a great device but the screen is just so darn small.
I’m looking forward to a review on your weblog. I can see it now. iPhone is great, Verizon is great. I need the two together.
I think we may begin to see a move to different service providers, in spite of the great iPhone.
http://twitter.com/philderksen/statuses/11041495358
Let’s see if folks actually pull the trigger. I know Phil is a Windows guy and appears to be excited about the new Windows Phones (HORRIBLE NAME MICROSOFT.)
I think I’m ok with the Pre screen size because I’ve been using a Centro for a while now, and that screen is tiny. I think having a hardware keyboard offsets the small screen somewhat, but I’d love to see Palm ship an iPhone sized phone with a virtual keyboard.
Palm is breaking into other carriers now. You can get it on Sprint and Verizon with AT&T on the way. Let’s see if they can make any headway.
Ya know, are smart phones a geek thing? What’s the adoption of smart phones other than iPhone in the non geek world? It would be interesting to see those numbers.
Well put. We can hope someday that we can pick our favorite phone maker, phone OS, carrier, and not have 2-year friggin’ long contracts. But until then we’ll have to compromise in one or more of these areas.
Looks like we posted at the same time. To follow up, I’m excited about Win Phone 7 (despite the underwhelming name), just like I am about the iPad, because of the approachability/user-friendliness it’s bringing to non-geeks. I haven’t used Android yet, but the consensus seems that it’s still to “geeky” for the average user. I’m sure that’ll change though.
What Android/Win Phone/Palm have over iPhone is the option of a hard keyboard. I know several “email from phone” enthusiasts that can never match the typing speed on a touch screen that they get from their hard keyboard. And I can understand that.
But again, if you’re dropping calls and you don’t have a choice in the matter, then what good is everything else?
my wife and I were just talking about this the other day; we’ve been with AT&T (under one name or another) since 1994. There used to be places on our commutes where we knew the call would be dropped, but those went away at least 6 or 7 years back. I have ZERO problems in my area – or in my house. We’ve dropped our landline completely.
Meanwhile, friends who live as little as 15 miles away have nowhere near the luck; dropped calls while out and about, they have to go outside their home to use the mobile phone, etc.
I haven’t heard anywhere near the kvetching in the Atlanta area as from NY and SF, though. I don’t know if that’s just because there are more vocal geeks to whom I listen (bloggers, podcasters, etc) in those two areas.
(btw, why are part of the comments green and others not?)
Phil, Win Phone makes sense for you to develop on, you’re a Windows developer. I haven’t seen one so I’m no sure how nice the UX is.
I do know this. C#/.NET is one fantastic development platform. I have yet to experience the productivity in Objective-C/Cocoa that I have with the C#/.NET combination. I’m getting better, but I have a long way to go.
In the end it’ll be good for the mobile economy; choice, lots and lots of choice.
Steven, the real problems seem to be NY and SF, with a smattering of issues elsewhere.
I just find it odd folks will stay with AT&T as long as they can use their iPhone. With corporations you vote with your dollars. As long as you’ll accept poor quality, and continue to pay the bill, they’ll keep taking your money.
I’d expect a huge flight to Verizon once the iPhone is available there. It’s only a matter of time.
As for the green comments. Mine are in a yellow background, everybody else is in grey. The site is nowhere near finished. It’s missing a lot of stuff. A friend is going to help me in his spare time, which, like most of us, he doesn’t have a lot of. 🙂
One day the site will have the look I’m after, until then, it’s functional.