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.

Wrote a couple of more articles on Digital Media and Marketing which got published online recently. Feedback and suggestions are most valued.

Improving the Quality of Online Leads – Published in July 08 in Thinking Aloud, IAMAI’s online marketing newsletter.

Email Marketing: If you cannot see this opportunity clearly, click here! – Published in June 08 on Alootechie.

I, like most other Indians, am still high on our recent victory in the Twenty20 World Cup. What a tournament, what a final. As has been reported by all, the best part was that most games had exciting finishes and there was NO clear favourite, least of all India.

And I guess it is this very passion for cricket in India that makes it difficult to understand why broadcasters would choose to ruin the veiwing experience by literally shoving an ad in every corner they can find. Not only do the ads eat into the action between balls, at they times they actually run over a ball or a shot. Lets get one thing clear, viewiers want to watch the match not the ads. I realise the business pressures, but do they realise how much it puts off the fan, the one who is enabling them to earn that very revenue?

I have to say though that this time around, it was slightly better than the ODI world cup (which even had Steve Waugh lamenting the broadcast quality in India). At least they weren’t showing ads during the final crucial moments.

Anyway, like many other things, we hope sports broadcast all comes of age in India soon and provides some degree of sophistication.

Word of advice, DO NOT opt for these Matrix (www.matrix.in) international sim cards when travelling. On two occasions, we have been gyped in the billing. They charge you for calls you never made and services you never availed yourself of. And since you have to authorise auto-debit on your CC, by the time you find out its too late. Both me (in 2006) and my wife (2007) have had similar problems. And they are completely unresponsive. There is no one responsible who can take a decision and sort matters out. The ground staff simply doesn’t care.

Yet another literary output from yours truly has found its way on IAMAI’s e-zine titled “Thinking Aloud”. The article is about Corporate Blogging and how organisations can use this new digital phenomenon to connect with its audience.

Social Marketing and Web 2.0 are the buzzwords in Online Marketing worldwide, and at Indigo Consulting, we intend to stay ahead of this new curve.

As always, comments and feedback on the article are welcome.

For those interested, an article I wrote on how relevant B-school education is in the context of entrepreneurship, was published by the Business Standard of 27th March 07, in the Strategist supplement.

Here’s the link.

http://www.businessstandard.com/common/storypage_supp.php?autono=278921&leftnm=1&subLeft=0&chkFlg=B-schools

Feedback will be much appreciated.

Or, as mumbai med-school lingo would say it, “Basics Mein Rada”.

Get the fundamentals straight guys – get the damn voice calls to work. We love contradictions and ironies in India, don’t we? Only here do you find that basic needs are ignored, while everyone vies for a share of the top-end of the market. We have the best institutes in engineering and management, but poor penetration of primary education; the best vehicles money can buy, but no roads to speak of; and now, the 4th largest phone population in the world, among the largest business deals in recent times, but a user has to live with a sub-standard phone network.

Droped calls, jammed networks, billing issues – how is this any different from struggling with the MTNL operator for a Trunk Call? At the Roger Waters concert in Mumbai last night, you might as well have left your phone home!

Mr. Sarin, we don’t mind waiting a bit longer to become the largest mobile network in the world, or for the fastest nG technology. Can we please make a trouble-free phone call?