Chords Of Life

As always, Apple has succeeded in blinding its consumers sufficiently with its coolness to ensure that all its VERY SIGNIFICANT shortcomings are happily glossed over. I mean, I can’t get over how supposed “expert reviews” tend to very conveniently ignore all these issues and give it a thumbs-up.

Lets face it, the iPhone fails – both, as a Phone, as well as a PDA – when compared to some of its less sexy but far more efficient competitors.  Here are some of the features that Apple has happily ignored, when other phones have had them for years – and they’re useful features – not just good-to-have items on the advertising. (Disclaimer: I’m not sure how many of these have been licked in the 3G version, but I’d still fail the iPhone for missing them out in the first place).

• Can’t forward SMSs. Earlier, could not send SMS to multiple recipients (DUH!!!)
• Can’t set an MP3 file as a ringtone!
• Camera is only 2MP – for a gadget that’s sold as a connected multimedia console!!
• Camera cannot shoot videos – please only buy the videos on iTunes – don’t shoot any of your own!!
• When sending an SMS, you HAVE to select a recipient first, and only then compose the message, you cannot do vice-versa.
• Cannot connect to your PC via Bluetooth – what good is 3G if I cannot use my phone as a modem also?
• Apparently, the browser does not support Javascript well enough (Flash is a problem with all mobile browsers anyway).
• Bluetooth Stereo Headset Support – so much for the company that revolutionised the way we listen to music!
• Cannot record audio.
• No voice dialing.
• Another user writes about the sound & signal quality

“iPhone is barely passable as a phone, with an extremely weak speaker, comparatively poor signal clarity, and radio frequency interference so powerful that when I tried to attach an iPod voice recorder, iPhone would not support it but still suggested that I shut down the wireless features (activate Airplane mode) to reduce interference. I can’t overstate the interference issue. I’m wearing a pair of noise-reducing headphones, and whenever iPhone polls for e-mail or checks in with the cell tower, I pick up the buzzing and chirping familiar to BlackBerry users who set their devices down too close to the bedside radio. But iPhone’s interference can be heard through a tuned-in FM radio from a fair distance away. It is loud. Steve Jobs attributed iPhone’s delay to market to FCC testing. I can understand why.”

And I’m not even getting into issues like the virtual keyboard etc, which people might argue is a matter of getting used to. The iPhone is far from a complete package and does not deliver even features now considered standard for a high-end, smartphone.

This is pretty typical of Apple – to ride on the sex appeal at the cost of practicality and value. They did it with the iPod – preventing replaceable batteries, not allowing WMA files to play, not providing FM/sound recording etc. I’ve already written a fair bit about the Mac in an earlier post.

The Red Cloud Research blog puts it well – “Apple products are never designed for practical business use; Apple’s target market is the fans and status freaks that I mentioned before. Apple is always about products that look funky but cost more and provide less functionality that similar products by other companies.”

Here’s another interesting look at Apple’s approach, where David Zeiler writes about how people keep buying Apple products despite obvious shortcomings. 

I am as much a fan of Apple’s design as the next guy, and am even willing to compromise a bit on function over form, but not when it borders on downright and brazen cheating.