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Please Fix The iPhone … Dot Com

Nov. 11, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

The iPhone is just the most curious mix technology, and anyone who tells you it’s perfect should be immediately suspect. Some of the iPhone is laugh out loud perfect. But much of it is just deeply flawed, with no fix in sight. I love the iPhone, I hate the iPhone. It’s the ultimate Apple product, in other words. Beautiful but frustrating.

This comes to light in a number of ways, and almost every single time I use it. Just the latest example: Yesterday, my wife was flying home from Phoenix and her multiple attempts to call me on the iPhone as I headed to the gym would be funny if it wasn’t so typical. The iPhone is a lousy, lousy phone and it disconnected us so often she eventually just called the gym so I could talk on a reliable phone. (My trainer, also an iPhone user, just laughed in understanding. This happens to him all the time too, he said.) On the other hand, after the gym, I was able to neatly manage email using its awesome Mail application while waiting for lunch, and the iPhone handles that task with both ease and elegance. When I got home and sat down in front of the computer, I had much less email to deal with, having already filed away the chaff. I love how well the iPhone works for that purpose.

(I was talking to my wife about this last night after she got home and noted that I rarely use the phone stuff anyway. And good thing, as the iPhone almost useless as a phone. I noted that if I could just get pervasive Internet access on the iPod touch, I’d get rid of the iPhone and get a “normal” less-complicated and less-expensive phone just for phone calls. Let’s just say that my wife’s freebie phone from Verizon always works and leave it at that.)

Anyway, I’m obviously not the only frustrated iPhone user. A new site called Please Fix The iPhone has been set up to catalog users’ frustrations, and some of the top requests are pretty darned obvious needs. Hopefully Apple will take the constructive nature of this site to heart and fix the top requests first. Note that unlike the national newspaper reviewers, I’ve mentioned virtually all of these issues and feature requests in my own reviews of the iPhone. It’s funny how some people are able to overlook obvious problems as they trip over each other trying to out-compliment Apple. But there are real problems. They include:

1. Lack of MMS support

2. Wireless sync (non-Bluetooth)

3. Copy and paste

4. Use SMS in landscape mode

5. View Flash content in Safari

6. Make Safari crash less frequently

7. Fix the Camera application so that you can click a picture more easily

8. Uninstall/hide built-in iPhone applications

9. Video recording

10. Stop reloading multiple Safari pages when navigating back to them

If you’re not familiar with the iPhone, the number 1 and 3 requests above work in tandem to perform what is, quite possibly, the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen on the device: When someone does try to send you an MMS message, it appears in the SMS application with a link to a Web page so you can go and view the content. (So much for the iPhone’s multimedia prowess, eh?) But the link includes a user name and password. Since you can’t copy and paste (a la complaint number 3), there’s no way to actually view that content without either memorizing the user name and password, and switching repeatedly between Safari and SMS, or by … get this … writing down the user name and password on a piece of paper and then manually typing that info in after you go to the linked Web page. The whole thing is utterly broken, but then that’s how the iPhone experience works. It’s either dazzling or retarded.

BTW. A site like this for Windows Mobile would be pointless since the entire OS needs to be dumped and rewritten from scratch. Sounds like a good use for that MinWin kernel Microsoft can’t stop talking about, no?

Thanks to Robert J. for the link.

Discuss this Article 88

robertsjoe
on Nov 11, 2008
"Sounds like a good use for that MinWin kernel Microsoft can’t stop talking about, no?" Yeah, talk, talk, talk. You'll have to wait for Apple to do something before Microsoft does. It's the way of the world. Apple first, Microsoft follows.
Lindy
on Nov 11, 2008
@subzero, pick any cell phone company and some people will bitch. If you live in a area where your vendor has fewer towers it will sour your experience. 3G is better technically than EVDO. However EVDO came out first from Sprint so it had (past tense) better coverage. 3G has the ability to go to higher speeds and is used more outside of the US. ATT is the largest cell phone company on the planet, with more customers and more money. That is more money to build out more of its 3G network. ATT is the best choice in the US for anyone wanting to roll out a ground breaking 3G phone. Is ATT perfect....well I think you answered that....perfectly:) BTW when the BlackJack 1 first came out I had many of the same problems that 3G iphone users complain of, dropped calls and poor battery life. When your phone uses more juice to be in 3G mode and constantly search for the fewer 3G towers you calls drop and your batter drains much faster. Back then (2006?) ATT has a simple suggestion. Turn of 3G on the Black Jack. Sure enough it fixed the problems. I am not suggesting this, as internet speed will just suck, and IMHO a call with good 3G coverage is crystal clear, provided you stand still:)
DRWAM
on Nov 11, 2008
But Mike has a good point about not allowing 'some' competing apps. Maybe they work better and I would be willing to pay for them. Although it's true that only a handful have been denied, they sure did get a lot of media coverage, and most seem to agree that developers should have been allowed to sell them, as Apple doesn't even charge for the competing apps, so why would they care? It just hosed the developer and excluded consumer choice. It's bad karma, even if it were just 4 or 5 apps.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
Lindy "3G is better technically than EVDO" is a totally silly statement. EV/DO is a 3G (3rd Generation) technology, so is UMTS/HSDPA (which the iPhone uses) so are lots of other technologies. Your statement is like saying "A car is better than a Ford" (Despite Apple thinking that their using a phrase makes it their own to define, usually as "What Apple wants it to be", 3G actually has meaning) Now, if you meant to say, "HSDPA is better technically than EVDO" perhaps that's worth a very technical discussion (which would be necessary to defend that extremely overly broad statement) and then would need to be followed up with a discussion of carrier protocol implementation and then followed up with a discussion of infrastructure roll-out.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
DRWAM It's not just the well publicized apps that got developed, got refused and then had developers willing to risk Apple's well known legal wrath to violate their NDA to even tell their customers that their product had been refused. It's also all the apps that Apple's license agreement means can't even be started. Things like apps that run in the background (although Apple's can) or GPS apps (although, certainly, Apple has a favored partner ready to go) or alternate music players or alternate browsers or alternate development suites or alternate app markets, etc.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
>>It's also all the apps that Apple's license agreement means can't even be started. Things like apps that run in the background (although Apple's can) or GPS apps (although, certainly, Apple has a favored partner ready to go) or alternate music players or alternate browsers or alternate development suites or alternate app markets, etc.<< If you want to offer those things, go to another platform. >Shrug< Or, as did the developers who worked *within* the development program, use your smarts to come up with something that will pass muster.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
Ocean Even if you want to work "*within* the development program", as you put it, you can't. Apple has a clause in their agreement that says they have the right to block any app for any reason they choose whether they follow the published rules or not. And Apple has used that "or anything else we feel like" clause. Podcaster obeyed every rule Apple through at them. They totally worked "*within* the development program" and there's not a thing in Apple's rules that they even came close to violating in letter or in spirit. They got banned because Apple decided that they wanted that market and to hell with anyone who might get in the way of Apple's (secret) plans. The Podcaster developer used his "smarts" and came up with an app that "passed muster". He got squashed. Repeatedly.
chuckb84
on Nov 11, 2008
So, just for a change, to try to contribute something useful, instead of all the sniping...... If you have an iPhone, and you're annoyed with some of Apple's rules, jailbreak it. I did. You want a thing called quickpwn. Google it. Very easy to use. You want to jailbreak for two reasons, at least these were MY reasons: 1. Pdanet. Allows tethering your laptop via the iphone. Indispensable. There was, for a brief time, an app like this on the app store (Netshare) but Apple quashed it because ATT won't allow it under the terms of service. So, the bad guy is---as is so often the case--the phone company. I understand ATT is about to "allow" this----for an extra $40/month!! No thanks. 2. Backgrounder. Once you have this installed, you can put ANY app in the background by a push and hold of the one button on the iPhone. I just love plugging my iPhone into my car (direct connection to CD-changer input which I don't use with a changer), starting Pandora radio and having the equivalent of satellite radio in the car for free. There are many other music streaming apps that work in a similar way. Works well on the 3g network, I don't know how it works with EDGE. Not well, I expect. There are other, much more gearheady reasons to jailbreak, but those are the two that made it essential for me to do it. And, in all the criticism of Paul's post, it is only fair to note that he also said, "BTW. A site like this for Windows Mobile would be pointless since the entire OS needs to be dumped and rewritten from scratch." I don't know; never used Win Mobile, but it's nice to see something evenhanded.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
>>Apple has a clause in their agreement that says they have the right to block any app for any reason they choose whether they follow the published rules or not. And Apple has used that "or anything else we feel like" clause.<< Only for a extremely small handful of the thousands of submissions. As I posted earlier, there's a lot of money being made in this space. Apple has no interest in unnecessarily crimping the money or the platform.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
Public service announcement: 1TB External Drive for $99 (AR) Personally, I hate rebates. But you might not, so there ya go. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10093552-58.html?part=rss&tag=feed&sub...
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
Ocean "Only for a extremely small handful of the thousands of submissions. " Making it up as you go along? Since Apple's latest SDK agreement includes a clause that developers can't say why or even if Apple has blocked their app from sale in the only legal channel there is NO way you can say that and have it mean anything. The only ones who know are the people at Apple who block apps. And they don't tell. It may be dozens. It may be thousands. It shouldn't be any.
DRWAM
on Nov 11, 2008
Thanks Ocean, I'm looking for even more storage since I have 5 computers [one for everybody], more if you count the dusty ones, but 5 running daily.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
If it were thousands, you'd have heard more about it. :) Nope, good old common sense tells us that it's just a handful of cases where Apple has business or strategic reasons to say no. Oh, and the legalese for the SDK has been changed. Theres a good question as to whether they were ever under a NDA: >>Nearly all responses were from iPhone developers who received rejection notices prior to this week; according to these developers, their rejection notices from Apple did not mention the NDA. *Most of these rejection notices were about specific technical issues*, along the lines of “Your app cannot be published because of X and Y. Please fix X and Y and re-submit.” -- Only one developer emailed to say that he had received a rejection notice from Apple which contained the following boilerplate at the bottom of the message: iPhone Application Review Team Apple Developer Connection Worldwide Developer Relations ******************************************** THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE ******************************************** However, several developers indicated that they’ve been receiving email with this line in the sig from ADC representatives at Apple for years, long before the iPhone.<< Asterisks mine. :) http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/app_store_rejections
johnpapola
on Nov 11, 2008
What a surprise. Apple surpasses RIM in quarterly sales, is blowing past all Windows Mobile quarterly sales combined, has the highest customer satisfaction and some reports of the highest reliability... and what do we get from Paul? A list of complaints. Oh, but why should he acknowledge all the insanely amazing results when everyone else is covering that? Why should he put the iPhone's own very real issues in context of it's competitors and how they handle things? Why even pretend to have credibility? Are there problems and feature shortcomings, of course! Is there a list of improvements I want to see, including fewer calling errors, quicker network switching and such? You bet. Is it the best smartphone I've ever owned is just about every sense by millions of miles? Absolutely. Is Ballmer, Verizon, Enderle, Palm, Waethorn and all the competitors, hacks and shills in between completely forced to eat crow by the iPhone's ludicrous and historic success? Yep. But go on, Paul. Keep preaching to the choir. It's a great way to make you feel good in the absence of any journalistic follow through or integrity. It's your blog Paul. You can be a partisan hack all you want. I want the iPhone to improve and welcome the criticism, but the absolute lack of follow up is remarkable.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
No sweat DrWAM. And again Mike, Apple has no reason to crimp it's platform or the its own cut of the sales. Thats how we know that the rejections have been relatively tiny. That and the size of the current app store catalog. No, I can't give you any hard numbers or a link to a site with that info. But what you do have access to is good old common sense.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
Ocean Why do you think Apple cares about 3rd party sales? Apple has a horrible history of screwing over partners when it's in Apple's interests. And it keeps on coming. Yeah, if there was a new app that was to the iPhone what PageMaker was to the Mac in 1985, sure, Apple would care. But there won't be since the iPhone/iPod platform doesn't need something to save Apple from bankruptcy. Anything short of another PageMaker is something they tolerate at best and more often target.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
Once again, you're inventing a stawman and then fighting him...
johnpapola
on Nov 11, 2008
@Ocean & team Apple, There does come a point where Apple fans need to recognize that this site and it's Apple coverage is a blindly propagandistic joke. From Paul's near-verbatim parroting of Microsoft's "Apple Tax" talking points, to his unqualified adoration for every component of their marketing from Mojave to Seinfeld to the supremely defensive "I'm a PC"... Paul is a Microsoft shill.... and clearly so is Mike Galos, god bless him. Sure, Paul may criticize Microsoft's products like Windows Mobile. But he goes so far beyond that criticism with Apple, into the realm of questioning motives and integrity. So dial back the participation. Deprive Paul of the traffic and the incentive to flamebait. Force Mike Galos to spend his obviously vast intellect on solving the world's problems in every sphere of reality from anti-trust law to intellectual property rights to family farming. The Mac is thriving and healthy and there's nothing the Hack/Shills can do to change that. The iPhone has utterly defied all nay-sayers and launched into pole position in it's market and there's no denying it. Our favorite platform is doing great. We don't really need to defend it anymore. Especially not in the face of this kind of intellectual dishonesty. Cheers.
lotsamystuff
on Nov 11, 2008
Girls, stop fighting. You're ALL pretty!
DRWAM
on Nov 11, 2008
Actually lotsa, many people have told me that I could probably wear a bra, but the last guy that called me a girl end up drinking fluids from a urinal :) Yes, I was escorted out by 5 bouncers, but it was worth it! I did a good tap dance for the police outside as well. You kinda get real humble when you see handcuffs and guns.
shark47
on Nov 11, 2008
@papola and the Team Hannity, Good point, except that it applies more to the PC users here. Most PC users are here for news about MS products. Many Mac users are here with the sole intention of fighting. I still don't get it why you're commenting here when you don't even care for Paul's opinion about Apple's products or news about Microsoft's products. You all can fool yourself into believing this site needs you (just like many Americans have fooled themselves into believing that countries like Iraq need the US). You sound delusional. God bless you all. "OS X, brothers!!" :-)
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
"Force Mike Galos to spend his obviously vast intellect on solving the world's problems in every sphere of reality from anti-trust law to intellectual property rights to family farming." Well, while I wait for Rahm Emanuel to call and ask me to join the White House policy team, I'll hang out. (But, if I get that call, I'm out of here)
DRWAM
on Nov 11, 2008
MIke and others, one of my partners just bought a $550 Vista laptop. I set up the VPN and Exchange for him. He loves it, but he'll probably never post here. It's for traveling as his main computer at home is a laptop. Like myself, he figures that if he breaks it or loses it, he'll just buy another. Easy to do at that price.
subzerohitman721
on Nov 11, 2008
@Lindy, It doesn't matter how good the technology is on paper, if the phones can't pick up the network consistently, it doesn't mean jack. Too many AT&T customers here in the Dallas metro area are having a hard time getting a consistent 3G network connect. Before you chime in about towers, Cingular/AT&T had and still has a huge advantage in towers in this area. That means most Dallasites are only getting Edge here. Edge is crap. Compared to the consistent and 99.99999999% of the time I'm connected by EV-DO, I have no incentive to switch to AT&T. I know phones vary and its up to the consumer to do their homework. However, I believe the phone should be the best part of the cell phone. The iPhone has some work to do on that part. Its a legit criticism. John, If you think Paul's so bad, then move on. Seriously, this is a windows centric site. We do dip into Apple. Deal with it. Nobody on here is going to change anyone's mind. Your convinced he's a shill, so be it. I think he's got plenty of cred. Seriously, this board has come down to sillyness and hijacking way too often.
Waethorn
on Nov 11, 2008
"John, If you think Paul's so bad, then move on." He said he would, but he won't give it up. "Your convinced he's a shill, so be it. I think he's got plenty of cred." Yet he peddle's his Spike TV crap on here, while complaining about the advertising space. Seriously john, either contribute something worthwhile or give it a rest and STFU. I think I'd rather read more of Ocean robertsjoe's's, or even losta's nonsensical blathering, or Lindy's pisspoor IT advice than your bitching and chewing about your ad host.
Ocean
on Nov 11, 2008
Pauls blog took a hard, *hard* turn from his previous posting style when he left off posting at the Internet-Nexus and came over to this site where comments could be posted.
Delmont
on Nov 11, 2008
Ok, I'm back. Let me Control-V: My Jag runs great, Vista runs great on my 3 year old Dell, my iPhone doesn't drop calls in the Detroit-Flint areas of MI and yes..........I'M A CONSERVATIVE. GO NEWT! DRILL HERE DRILL NOW! OK...........I wanted to buy a Samsung BlackJack II, but you know I'm a die-hard Microsoft guy...but the WinMobile Samsung phone SUCKS SUCKS compared to the iPhone with built in iPod. I want WinMobile to kick Apple's butt. It doesn't though. Sad truth. One last thing: liberalism is bad bad bad. What is America today? We the people are now in the mortgage business and we the people are soon to be the automotive industry if the next bailout happens. We're in trouble people! Enough bitching about your OS X dock is better than the Start button. Do you people have any real clue as to what is happening in OUR economy, in OUR country? America is on the verge of going over the cliff. We're printing money out of thin air to save our butts! By the way, on Craigslist I can buy for $5 a G3 Mac, 400MHz what do you think? Should I? I believe it has 32meg ram and OS 9. It's the all in one unit. :-) Oh and I agree with John P. on the economy. And for Mike G. SCREW the Sarbanes Oxley Act!
shark47
on Nov 11, 2008
"I think I'd rather read more of Ocean robertsjoe's's, or even losta's nonsensical blathering, or Lindy's pisspoor IT advice than your bitching and chewing about your ad host." I definitely wouldn't put lotsa in the same category as Ocean and robertsjoe, but to each is his own. :-) RE: the economy, if and when stability is restored in Iraq, the US will start making billions of dollars from the rebuilding efforts. Invading Iraq had nothing to do with democracy or Al Qaeda. It was all about money. Afghanistan is a poor country and there was no way the US could make money from the rebuilding efforts there. And hence, the Iraq invasion. That's my conspiracy theory for the day.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 11, 2008
Delmont How would you know anything about Liberalism, we've spent the last 8 years under the most conservative administration in US history and before that had moderates or conservatives since 1968. Sorry. Any problems you see now are clearly your people's fault. As for SOx, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have corrupt corporate officers robbing the country blind? It's not as though SOx got put it because the GOP run Congress liked regulation, it's because their deregulation fever let nobody but foxes run the hen house and they had to do something to keep the last few chickens alive. Blame business leaders that steal. Blame conservatives who don't like to regulate "their kind of people" but don't blame those of us who would have preferred a real re-regulation. Now, back to the usual whining about how Paul's treating Apple unfairly by implying they're not divine perfection incarnate.
Waethorn
on Nov 11, 2008
"RE: the economy, if and when stability is restored in Iraq, the US will start making billions of dollars from the rebuilding efforts. Invading Iraq had nothing to do with democracy or Al Qaeda. It was all about money. Afghanistan is a poor country and there was no way the US could make money from the rebuilding efforts there. And hence, the Iraq invasion. That's my conspiracy theory for the day." That's the current plot arc of Prison Break. I saw this awhile back though, when Halliburton came into play well before Bush Jr. started his first term. Daddy Bush set some events in motion that led to the "invasion" and eventual occupation for his son to control. That happened in the early 80's when he started making friends with Arab oil tycoons. Oil runs in the Bush family blood. What's funny is that Canada is the largest supplier of american oil. We have all the oil, and all the fresh water too. It's just easier to steal oil and make money profiteering in a rebuilding plan while simultaneously destroying a country and masking it as a war in a very different civilization on the other side of the world. That sh*t just won't fly here. We're just too close for people not to notice it for what it was either.
johnpapola
on Nov 11, 2008
"How would you know anything about Liberalism, we've spent the last 8 years under the most conservative administration in US history and before that had moderates or conservatives since 1968." Ha. That's rich. Medicare Prescription drug expansion. No Child Left Behind department of education expansion. The patriot act (a warmed-over version of Clinton's 1996 anti-terrorism act that the REAL conservatives killed). Sarbanes regulatory overreach (and it was) and now a massive consumer products regulatory overreach. Guns and Butter spending and interventionism like nothing we've seen since LBJ. Horrific inflation through out-of-control monetary policy and a complete abandonment of a strong dollar. Please... stop my description of this "conservative" administration before I turn into Barry Goldwater. The Republicans deserved what they got for trashing the ideals of personal and economic liberty that used to underpin "conservatism". Sorry, Mike, but if you're not talking about monetary policy, you're not talking about anything that matters in this economy. The Federal Reserve and the Treasure have planted the seeds of our undoing and I believe their current chaotic "action" is doing more harm than good. Who in their right mind would invest right now, given the completely bizarre and erratic behavior of the Treasury? What bank is going to want to lend in this climate of government action uncertainty. You gotta feel bad for President-Elect Obama. The only question is whether he'll be a repeat of Nixon or Carter. Both of those guys were left to deal with the devastation of LBJ's guns-and-butter dollar destruction. Our only silver lining right now is that the whole world is in the tank and our US Treasuries remain alluring and secure enough to continue attracting foreign investment to fund our massive deficit. The rest we print at the risk of hyper-inflation. Mike, your problem is that you buy into the provably false notion that the government does anything OTHER than collude with big business. Look at that Farm Bill. Look at the Energy Bill. Look at "campaign finance reform". Just look at any of these bills. They are interest-group driven nonsense designed to prop up incumbents in business and politics alike and that's been true under both parties. Corruption will be rampant in any system that lacks checks and balances, and our unconstitutional federal bureaucracy has none. ZERO. It's time for REAL change. It's time to take their power away... starting with the power to print money out of thin air to fund their boondoggles which raising our prices on everything. ...but what the hell do I know?
johnpapola
on Nov 11, 2008
And more more thing... Market liberalization has lifted more people out of poverty in the past several decades than socialism and central planners ever did all put together. I'll take the progress since 1968 on the economic front, even with this current downturn, any day of the week.
SPiotr
on Nov 11, 2008
@mikegalos from this thread: " If that isn't a definitional example of Abuse of Monopoly Power, I don't know what one is" from a previous thread: "Being an iPhone developer is a sucker bet. Luckily, there are lots of other platforms out there...."
Mum
on Nov 11, 2008
Copy/Paste has to appear at some point. But I see why it hasn't. It has to be just right, as it can't really be changed afterwards. Besides, when they do it, it will probably be used by everyone else in the same way so this doesn't just apply to iPhone. And "9. Video recording"...? Might as well scratch that and replace with "9. Shaving machine." 'Your statement is like saying "A car is better than a Ford"' Heh, I might say just that :) "Good point, except that it applies more to the PC users here. Most PC users are here for news about MS products. Many Mac users are here with the sole intention of fighting. I still don't get it why you're commenting here when you don't even care for Paul's opinion about Apple's products or news about Microsoft's products." And why are you here? Because on this on this thread you're the one who started it. Anyway, even you're not saying *most* Mac users are here to fight.
DRWAM
on Nov 12, 2008
It is a little suspect that many recent net news articles are writitng impressive or good things about the iPhone yesterday...then this post pops up. I'm just saying....
lotsamystuff
on Nov 12, 2008
"We have all ...the fresh water too. " I know a few people in Michigan that would disagree with you.
Dude1313
on Nov 12, 2008
Could the iPhone be improved sure. Nothing is prefect. However those who seem to imply that Apple is going to be going away or is in for an @ss kicking are deluding themselves. Apple is on the verge of printing money. Due to SOx the are deferring revenue, basically spreading the sales over 24 months. In June of 2009 the first gen phones revenues will be fully realized, that means in Q4 Apple will be fully reaping the harvest, from then on they are basically printing money. http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/10/23/the-day-apple-released-i... Keep reading it until it sinks in, Wall Street has been missing this for nearly 1 1/2 years. Also the other thing that get missed is that Apple has been in this space in for less then 2 years, the fact they have come this far is nothing short of astonishing. Piss poor advice from Liddy? He's dead on. He is also correct about ATT. Most popular phone= larger network, more revenue, more money for acquisitions, more money to expand a network, it becomes self-sustaining. On to Verizon: They are iin a losing proposition, they may have the best coverage in the US, the rest of the world is GSM... The world spoke and they are on the outside looking in. I'm thinking that Verzion might be kicking themselves now, they are basically Dell now, Dell had 1 and only 1 advantage in computers: Japanese "just in time manufacturing" applied to the computer industry. It wasn't anything new or revolutionary, it was just teh first time it was done successfully in the computer realm. Now everyone does it and look where they are now: Verizon by way of example is the same: they have a fast network. Their phones suck, their billing is a nightmare, their excessive penny gouging is ridiculous. Also its ironic that many are looking at this is in a purely US centric light: The world cell-phone market dwarfs every Verizon subscriber several times over. Apple is selling the iPhone in India which now has what 1.2 billion people? Verizon's subscriber base is 60 million giver or take. Paul sure loves to trumpet world market share when it suits him. Apple is aiming globally, and Verizon is a big fish in a single pond, apple is looking at ponds the world over. Do I want the iPhone on the fastest network available, yep. Is Apple concerned at all about Verizon now? I'm guessing not. Sounds like the CEO of Verizon at the time will be remembered as another Dick Rowe on not signing the Beatles. Apple could make a CDMA phone for the Verizon network, but why? Who was the ones who said "No thanks"? So to close out: can Apple improve the phone? Sure. I think they will too, its only matter of time and with the revenue that is building ist going to be likely...
Dude1313
on Nov 12, 2008
Hrmmmm That should be Dick Rowe, not sure what happened there.

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