on 7 June 2010UPDATE: The real details of the real iPhone 4 are, of course, now available.
Today, Steve Jobs will announce the new iPhone, colloquially known as the ‘4G’, though more likely sold as the iPhone HD. Despite sterling efforts, nobody has been able to reveal any substantial information about it, because Apple is highly secretive about new products. Yet the Telegraph’s Consumer Technology Editor, Matt Warman, managed to publish a piece* before the weekend advising consumers of the 4G’s key weaknesses.
How did he do it? Inside information? Nope. Educated guesswork? Not really. No, Matt got the jump on every other tech pundit across the globe simply by basing his article on a combination of stuff about previous iPhones, stuff he made up, and stuff that doesn’t even make enough sense to be right or wrong.
I don’t normally pick on every mistake by a fellow tech writer; I’m sure I make plenty myself. But this was egregious, as a lot of other people very quickly pointed out in the comments. Then they had their comments ‘moderated’ to remove criticisms that Matt, or someone at the Telegraph, didn’t like. In fairness, nutters writing abusive rubbish in comments can be annoying for everyone. I’m not quite sure that well-informed factual rebuttals by a well known tech writer and respected academic really fall under that heading, but, you know, it’s a grey area. No it isn’t.
Today, Matt tweets:
I am still waiting for anybody to point out an inaccuracy
Maybe those comments were redacted before even Matt got to read them. So let’s not keep him waiting any longer.
* * *
1) It’s expensive: Buy the top-of-the-range Blackberry or Android handset and you will still pay a lot less than the extortionate prices Apple charge
Nobody knows any details at all of iPhone 4G tariffs. Perhaps Matt has been listening to the same Carphone Warehouse salesperson that told me this week the 4G would be ‘around £60 a month’. This was obviously based on exclusive advance information and not any desire to upgrade me to a 3GS and get his commission. (He didn’t clarify what the imaginary price of the hardware would be on this imaginary tariff, or what calls or data would be included.)
Meanwhile, in real life, on O2 the iPhone 3GS is £149 + £35/mo or £179 + £30/mo. A BlackBerry Storm 2 or 9700 Bold is £149 + £25/mo. So, less expensive, yes; ‘a lot’, perhaps not very accurate; ‘extortionate’, judge for yourself.
2) It’s anti-technology: When the iPhone launched it was cutting edge – now as other manufacturers announce, for instance, that you can use their phones as shareable wifi hot spots, Apple says no.
Nice use of ‘for instance’ to mean ‘just one thing, but let’s make it sound like there might be more’. A couple of HTC phones support this feature. The next version of Google’s Android OS is also said to enable it, but that doesn’t mean WiFi sharing will actually be supported by the networks. ‘We’d imagine any operator offering Android phones will be clamping down on their data tariffs sharpish,’ reckons TechRadar. So Apple is unlikely to be alone in saying no in this instance. All the other instances we’ll have to leave to Matt’s imagination.
In other news, apparently failing to make available free of charge any feature that might theoretically be possible using current technology is ‘anti-technology’. There’s a lot of it about, then.
3) No Flash: The iPhone, the phone that promised to put the web into everybody’s pockets, can’t even show you most of it, because it can’t handle Flash graphics.
Now, I’m the last person to defend Apple’s ban on Flash. Really, the last. But Matt’s reality distortion field is working even better than Steve’s. ‘Most’ of the web uses Flash? Really? How accurate is that?
And how rare is it, really, to find a phone that doesn’t support Flash? I mean, for the user, does it make any difference whether their handset maker specifically prohibits Flash or, as on most phones, it just doesn’t work?
* * *
4) No multitasking: Tried instant messaging on an iPhone? Oh yes, you have to open the app to see if you’ve got a message.
On an iPhone 3G/S, true. It’s annoying! Good job we already know this is changing in iPhone OS 4. You know, the operating system Apple has written for the new iPhone. The iPhone Matt is supposedly talking about.
Also annoying for Matt: going to the doctor. They put all leeches and stuff on you, eww. What, they don’t do that now?
5) Its battery life is terrible
Well, as anyone knows who’s ever commissioned reviews of tech gear, it’s almost impossible to judge real world battery life from a specs list.
Oh, wait. Nobody’s seen a specs list for the iPhone 4G.
So Matt must be talking about… D’OH!
Does presenting pure speculation as fact count as inaccurate? If you were going to speculate accurately, you’d probably say battery life is the single most common complaint about the iPhone, and thus something Apple is quite likely to want to address. That’s the Apple who recently launched the iPad, with its much talked-about ten-hour battery life. Hmm. I don’t want to do myself out of a specialist job here, but it doesn’t seem all that hard to be more accurate than Matt.
6) Developing apps for it is costing you money: The special version of the BBC iPlayer, of Natwest Phone Banking, of Eon’s meter reader – developing all of these came out of money that could have been channelled away from a self-important minority and towards more generally useful ideas.
Yes folks, Matt is the Telegraph’s first full-time Maoist. How dare organisations make their own choices about which platforms to target? They must serve only the glorious majority.
Matt’s Five Year Plan of App Development:
- Identify which platform is most popular. Not the most popular mobile platform – that would be iPhone. You’re only allowed the one most popular platform of any kind. Scratch that, the platform that’s most used, whether or not anyone actually likes it. So that’s Windows desktop web browsers then. Phew, not made by Apple – plan holding up so far.
- Develop a service specifically for that platform. Do not use any method that could make this service trivial to port to some other platform.
- Still got development budget? Spend it tweaking that same service for that same platform. Under no circumstances ever develop another service (or the same service, see above) for another platform, no matter how fragmented the market or what the demographics may tell you. Because that would be wrong.
* * *
7) It comes with offensively bad headphones
An audio device? That comes with headphones? And the makers spent all the money on the audio device, and next to nothing on the headphones? Which you can easily replace? With the kind of headphones you personally happen to like? Or even a favourite pair of headphones that, as somebody who gives a shit about headphones, you already have? Thus losing nothing because the maker didn’t spend any significant part of your money on the bundled headphones anyway, just threw some average ones in so that people who didn’t give a shit about headphones would have something to listen with?
The dirty bastards.
I think Matt understates Apple’s culpability here. The worst part is that now Apple has come up with this ‘shipping cheap headphones with a good quality audio device’ trick, other manufacturers might start doing it too. I know this may seem paranoid, but I can already think of at least one time I’ve had this experience with a non-Apple audio device.
Hang on, that was in 1983, before mobile phones existed. Curse you, Sony! Jobs must have got his weaselly consumer-hostile ideas from that visit to the Walkman campus.
Matt goes on:
It’s another example of Apple charging premium prices, but delivering a dressed up, budget product.
Another example! In addition to the… zero examples we’ve already heard from Matt. These instances and examples are elusive little blighters, aren’t they?
Of course, the poor headphones do indeed prove that the whole iPhone is merely a dressed-up budget product. Pfffft, anyone could make that market leading-assed piece of crap.
* * *
8) It’s not very well designed
*boggles* I’m sorry?
8) It’s not very well designed
*hushes pitchfork-bearing crowd of industrial design experts* In what way, exactly?
Use the iPhone as a phone and it’s not got great reception, nor is it particularly comfortable to use for long periods.
Umm. Isn’t that whole reception thing more about the first-gen iPhone? You know, like, three years ago? I don’t have any problem with my 3G (not even S). Obviously I can’t swear that the 4G won’t revert to questionable voice quality, because I haven’t seen it yet.
Oh! But nor has Matt. I wonder when these long periods of use occurred?
And what phone is he comparing it to? Just about every phone I’ve seen recently is a flat rectangle the size of a, well, iPhone. What exactly are the ergonomic benefits of rival flat rectangles? Are different colours more comfortable? If so, I have a feeling Apple has the answer to that. (See, I just gave you more inside info on the 4G than exists in the whole of Matt’s article.)
9) It charges for satnav: In an age when Nokia and Google Android provide completely free mapping and satnav facilities
‘In an age when’? That age only started this year. When a couple of other phone vendors, desperate to claw back users from Apple, cast around for stuff they could bundle free, and picked satnav. Right, to make this a fair comparison, let’s have a quick trawl through the free apps on the iPhone App Store and see what features you can get for free on your iPhone that Nokia doesn’t give you. See you in about a month.
And finally:
10) Those iPod docks are holding back better technologies
How so?
if it wasn’t for the iPod and iPhone’s ubiquity, there’d be more wifi radios, more new technologies and a range of different options, competing and driving innovation.
So… What we need, if I’m correctly following Chairman Matt’s groundbreaking economic theory, is new products that are really good, but not good enough to become popular.
That’s not inaccurate. It’s just insane.
Comments are open, folks.
*I know. I linked him. He won. Gnnnn.
adambanksdotcom Apple founder @ronaldgwayne has had several careers; on this showing, tech policy punditry could be a keeper
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
Not that it’s very important, but Apple was founded in 1976.
Wow. Based on the points you specifically address here, that could possibly have been the worst technology article I ever read, had I been unfortunate enough to read it!
I particularly enjoyed your debunking of the headphone criticism; as someone with a £40 pair of earphones (still not that expensive in the world of hi-fi headphones, but far better than you would *ever* get bundled with any device), I would be somewhat annoyed if my new iPhone came with anything better than Apple’s crappy earbuds.
A+, sir, although: “Hang on, that was in 1983, before Apple or mobile phones existed.” Apple existed in 1983, unless I hallucinated the Apple II.
“*I know. I linked him. He won. Gnnnn.”
Try rel=nofollow? He’ll still get the ad impressions, but won’t get any PageRank goodness:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow
Indeed, I was thinking of the Mac, of course. My friend Philip had an Apple II. Nice.
@Ahruman: Well, I’m still waiting for anybody to point out an inaccuracy ;)
@Stef Oooh, that’s mean. Geeky meanness is the worst.
Article updated to correct inaccurate reference to Apple’s birth date. Thanks commenters!
Perhaps the best debunking post I’ve ever seen on the Internets. Not that that should be too hard, considering the horrifically awful standard of the piece it’s responding to, but great job nonetheless.
I figure anybody who coins the term “Telegraph’s first full-time Maoist” deserves a reply, so here goes – apologies for the length.
Was the article provocative? Yes, and intentionally so. I’m not making any apologies for questioning the wisdom of Apple’s many fans. Nor am I saying Apple don’t make some great products. But more of that later.
Firstly, and I think most importantly, regarding our new commenting platform. We do not pre-moderate anything. Comments are only removed if another user complains about them. Users are only barred if they’re complained about a lot. I have never complained about a comment on an article of mine, ever. If comments have been removed, it’s because other users of the site don’t like them. We publish provocative pieces in the hope, sometimes, of sparking debate and we welcome all but the most abusive commenters.
Now, you’re calling the article linkbait, by which I take it you mean wilfully controversial. I plead guilty to that, but I don’t believe for a moment it is incompatible with meaningful, worthwhile debate. And within technology, there are few things more polarising than Apple technology. What I wanted to do is point out that Apple sometimes attracts unquestioning adoration, and that there are valid reasons to suggest that it isn’t perfect. You may disagree with my reasons, you may wish to interpret them in such a way that they appear misinformed, but the agenda, surely, is legitimate?
So let’s look at the reasoning, in a few examples - headphones? If I buy an audio device I don’t expect the first thing I need to do is upgrade something to make it acceptable to use it on the Tube. On multitasking, you seem not to have read the whole paragraph. On satnav you might disagree with my assessment of its importance, but it ain’t there. On flash, ditto. On technology in general (which is my most important point)? Simply put, I don’t like one player being dominant in a market, and I wish there was more competition. So if a big organisation chooses to make an App and discriminate in favour of one group of customers (iPhone users) and against, eg, Samsung users, I think they should be called out for it. That’s not the same thing as saying they shouldn’t be allowed to do it.
My point is not to try to prove you wrong – it’s to say that every one of my points is defensible and debatable. I think we need to have debates about the place Apple, Google, Microsoft and more take in our lives, because each one of them brings with it a sort of philosophy. Sometimes the best way to do that is by touching nerves.
Tomorrow there will, after the announcement tonight, be a follow-up piece. It’s very unlikely to get the traffic of the original. If it’s controversial, does that make it linkbait? I don’t think so, but I hope people would read it and engage with it either way. I’ve written, previously, that the iPad is a game-changing device, when many were saying it was simply a big iPod Touch. Perhaps I’ll find myself rushing out to buy the iPhone HD. But either way, I will always maintain that healthy debate is a good thing, even if it means angering the crowd.
Thanks,
Matt
Matt, healthy debate should be based on facts, not conjecture and misinformation. I’m no rabid Apple fan, I don’t own an iPhone or want an iPad, but even I could tell most of your “facts” were so far out of the ball park as to be irrelevant.
Writing an article in a controversial style doesn’t make it linkbait. Factual inaccuracies make it linkbait.
@Matt, your response is a bad as your ‘article’
I completely agree healthy debate is important, particularly when talking on the subject of monopolies, but why slate Apple? Why not slate the other companies who have yet to knock apple off the top spot?
Apple has a take on Flash; it really han’t been done well on any phone, mainly because it wasn’t created for mobile devices. It’s inefficient. Apple removed the floppy disk drive, and as Jobs says they pick their technologies that are upward bound, such as HTML5.
Not buying a phone because of the earbuds is so ridiculous nothing needs to be said about that point. Same goes for the design. Show me one person that doesn’t hold a new apple product in their hands and smile. Creating that is reality distortion; its the feeling of emotional connection that apple does so well to create.
“but there’ll be no apology for the way it’s treated customers in the past” what does this even mean? I’ve seen multitasking done badly on android phones. I’ve seen it STOP a phone from working. Apple made a choice about multitasking on the basis of the chips around at that time. As time moves on, they will be able to add features. Why would they apologise?
I thought the meaning of the article was to highlight the 10 reasons not to buy an iphone HD (ridiculous even giving it a name at the moment), not to test the legitimacy of apple hardcore fans. Why not just put ‘ Apple Sucks’ and see what comments you get then?
There’s a world of difference between controversy and being inaccurate for the sake of it, especially about a product that hasn’t even been released yet, let alone one you’ve not actually used yourself. In some ways, your article isn’t a great deal better than those bloody awful ‘reviews’ that pop up on Amazon before ‘console x’ or ‘game y’ gets released.
As for dominance, it’s not like Apple has anywhere near the level of clout in the smartphone space that, say, Microsoft enjoys on the desktop. In terms of apps, it’s by far the most popular choice, but that’s because its ecosystem is typically better for devs and consumers alike. However, to grumble that an organisation shouldn’t ‘discriminate’ is crazy. It’s about deciding where and how you can profit and continue your work. So, yeah, there are loads of iPhone OS-specific apps, but, hell, it’s not like I can play Mario Kart on my iPod or run Access on Mac OS X.
I’m just going to concentrate on the multi-tasking bit, because that’s the bit that Matt has suggested is out-of-context here, ignoring the whole paragraph.
Having read the whole paragraph, the best I an come up with in translation is this : “Don’t buy an iPhone 4G, because the iPhone has never had multi-tasking before”.
By ‘Controversial’ and ‘Provocative’, I’m reading this as ‘Deliberately lied to get hits’. Nothing here is making me change my mind about the legitimacy of linkbaiting.
Cheers Matt. I’m still a bit confused about what’s happening with comments at the Telegraph, but I do realise it’s not you pulling the strings.
By linkbait I mean designed to get attention, not reward it. I don’t think that’s the direction journalism should be going in. I do understand if things look different from your particular corner.
It’s perfectly fair to say I’ve taken issue with certain parts of what you’ve said without quoting the rest. But I do think some of your specific points are either definitely not true of the iPhone 4G or are unlikely to be true while being presented as fact rather than speculation. Beyond that, I have no complaint about you being deliberately contentious. That would be pot/kettle territory.
Memo to Matt: there IS free satnav on the iPhone. It’s called “Google Maps”. Oh, and if you want turn-by-turn voice satnav on the iPhone just buy NDrive from the app store for around £5 for the UK and Ireland. It’s a bargain and rather better than Nokia’s dreadful ‘free’ OviMaps.
My opinion on Matt Warman’s general accuracy was cemented a few months ago by this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/7400461/Microsofts-Courier-device-will-be-a-digital-journal.html
It’s both factually inaccurate and grammatically troubling (books don’t have screens).
I have been following debates about the iPhone/HTC and similar for years now, and one thing keeps on biting my bum.
For years now we have had phones that will surf the net, and I don’t mean that silly WAP thingy either.
I found the XDA (HTC) through O2. With its resistive screen and stylus suddenly the net had a practical, daily use. Any text was importable through copy and paste, and with Word was a sensible machine that was not a TOY.
There was only one thing… nobody else seemed to know about it, apart fron a few techies. No Marketing. HTC, I suspect, must have been frustrated by the lack of coverage their product drew.
So, along comes Apple who saw the hole in the market, had a quiet titter to themselves, and a produced a very simple phone which did enough to be a bit fancy. Problem was the screen couldn’t do copy and paste because they plumped for the capacitive screen and banked on the average plank not noticing there wasn’t much you could do with their baby except play with it when you were bored.
So along came “Apps” some of which are truly mad.
Nobody noticed there was a much better platform on the market already. All it ever needed was developing as fast as Apple had done. And it was not helped by MicroSoft having their mind elsewhere. Evenso, the Orbit is a cracking tool, even now.
Who knows why the iPhone can’t have spare batteries, SD slots and so on.
The real shame is the HTC are now using capacitive screens to try and catch the iPhone and finally killed the main use they had for “copy and paste” that we all used the old XDAs for in the first place.
Hey ho…
Thanks for taking the time to write this up, great post. Makes me wish you had a Flattr button :)
“Who knows why the iPhone can’t have spare batteries, SD slots and so on.”
Me. And the reason is: because the vast majority of people simply do not need these features, and because they have the potential to complicate things, thereby reducing UX.
@The Admiral: The iPhone didn’t go very long without copy and paste; it was just a feature that wasn’t ready for the original launch. I don’t quite see the connection with the capacitive screen, except maybe it’s more accurate selecting text with a stylus? I haven’t used a stylus since the Newton, so I wouldn’t know.
My iPhone is definitely useful for more than playing. I researched and wrote a widely read article on it the other week. It was painful, but less so than it would have been on any other mobile device I can think of.
My camera has a removable battery. It falls out quite a lot. At the moment the whole thing is unusable because the battery charger I bought to replace the original one turned out to be made so poorly it only worked once. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with sealed units as long as the component life is decent and the manufacturer’s replacement programme is reasonably quick and affordable.
An SD slot, and the facility to store media without having to take it on a tour round iTunes first, would indeed be nice.
Matt, QQing about Adam calling you linkbait isn’t going to help you. To deal with your substantive points, though…
“If I buy an audio device I don’t expect the first thing I need to do is upgrade something to make it acceptable to use it on the Tube.”
- I don’t like Apple’s headphones either, but they’re no worse than anyone else’s. In fact, they’re way better than the POS headphones you’ll get on phones from LG which are specifically designed for audiophiles (including features like Dolby on the phone). Criticising them because they’re not shipping £100 Sennheisers when no one else is, either, is silly.
“On multitasking, you seem not to have read the whole paragraph.”
- You appear not to have read your own paragraph. You begin “If Apple announces multitasking next…”, which would be fine… except there is no “if” about it. They announced it, months ago. Past tense. I’m sure you’re familiar with it.
Incidentally, Adam was kind enough not to mention that when you say (of IM) “Oh yes, you have to open the app to see if you’ve got a message” that this is also wrong. I’m using IM+. It pops up an alert when I have a message - I don’t have to open up the app to see that.
“On flash, ditto.”
- Except that you said, quite clearly, that the iPhone “can’t even show you most of [the web]” because of its lack of Flash. That’s utter nonsense. Flash isn’t used by “most of the web”. Not even close.
“Simply put, I don’t like one player being dominant in a market, and I wish there was more competition. So if a big organisation chooses to make an App and discriminate in favour of one group of customers (iPhone users) and against, eg, Samsung users, I think they should be called out for it.”
- I look forward to your savage piece condemning Adobe for making Premiere Windows-only. Or every single games company which completely ignores the Mac (and Linux, and hey let’s throw the Atari ST into the mix too).
“My point is not to try to prove you wrong – it’s to say that every one of my points is defensible and debatable.”
- No. No, really, they’re not. We’re not talking about a difference of opinion here. We’re talking about simple factual errors. Most of the web doesn’t use Flash. Companies choosing to develop apps for the biggest platform isn’t “discrimination”. You do, in fact, get alerts when you get a new IM with every IM app I’ve seen for iPhone. Apple has already announced multitasking, so there’s no “if” about it.
These bits are just plain old-fashioned wrong, Matt. I know that you desperately want not to admit it, but really - this is your professional reputation at issue. I know from experience that if you get something wrong, you just end up looking like an idiot if you pretend it didn’t happen. So do the right thing.
Battery life on phones is perceived as poor is because batteries once required to do no more than power an RF chip now have to run a converged computer/phone consisting of - camera, colour screen, Bluetooth radio, wifi, internet browser, email, GPS, and number of other ‘killer apps’ on a device which six or seven years ago were the realms of fiction and is now common place. Switch on all of these on a say, a Nokia 97 Mini and the battery life is even ‘worse’ than on an iPhone. Use an iPhone 3GS just to make and receive calls for half an hour a day and the battery will last three days. Having said that, ‘poor’ battery life on an iPhone is not really a hardship. Even intensive use will see it through 12 hours and a recharge is only as far away as the nearest USB port, let alone wall socket. And if it really is a deal-breaker, just fit one of the many third-party iPhone cases which contain a small a backup battery. Consumer ‘experts’ like Matt Warman should realise the iPhone is not so much a phone as a handheld computer. Comparisons with a laptop battery are more relevant.
Yes, I missed the multitasking thing. I sort of take that for granted with HTC, and have done from the beginning. Crazy.
Also the stylus IS SO much more accurate. And it is a wonderful worry-bead. And a brilliant tooth-pick…
Yes, I will never try another iPhone…
Apple fans react strongly against how media markets itself. Love it :)
The Admiral, I had the T-Mobile Ameo (aka HTC Advantage, O2 XDA Exec) before I got the first iPhone. It had a 640×480-pixel swivelling touch screen. It could run Java. It had an SD card slot.
And, frankly, it stunk. It wasn’t a great phone and it was flakey as hell for mobile computing tasks. The word processor WAS a toy, as was Mobile IE. (That particular browser was the kind of toy that needed health & safety warnings!) Multitasking? Well yeah, if it was in a good mood. But you soon got into the nerdy world of resource management. For goodness’ sake, this is a phone!
When I got the first-gen iPhone I put the Ameo into a drawer - simply because, despite losing in that particular Top Trumps features list game, the iPhone was an all-round better device for real use - and that was on the original launch day.
Live with one then live with the other. No single product will have every feature of the other, but really - if you want a smartphone the iPhone is streets ahead of those ‘XDA’ models. We’re into a whole new generation of devices now. That Ameo is still in that drawer. It is ancient history now.
BTW, the iPhone’s capacative touch screen is surprisingly accurate, far more so than you’d think if you hadn’t tried it properly. I’m very glad we don’t need a stylus - that’d be another thing to worry about losing.
Haha, I just went through pretty much all of the negations that you supplied on Facebook with a friend. If I’d have come across this article before then I could have saved myself some time ;)
On a separate note; I like the Thesis customization that your site is currently running, keep up the good work!
Ian Betteridge gets it right when he says that Matt Warman has put his professional reputation on the line here. But so have many of those writing for newspapers… I think the editors are seeing the spikes in online hits when their writers adopt these inherently dishonest shock-jock tactics, and encourage it.
I really hope that these myopic, short-view tactics fail, and that media organisations return to quality commentary… but I’m not holding my breath. I do however vote with my feet (fingers?), and search out the best quality writers wherever they are.
As news of the moment, Apple has suddenly become target of the moment, so this kind of rubbish is popping up all over - just look at the sensationalist tripe published about the events at Foxconn, where a very interesting, complex, difficult situation ripe for intelligent discussion was turned into a 5-minute tabloid beat up.
Adam, your measured, knowledgeable response shows that we don’t have to be hostage to desperadoes, hacks and buffoons, and that can only be a good thing. Thanks!
Good work Adam
I just wanted to point out that if you really must turn your phone into a wifi hotspot, the iPhone has been able to do this for ages.
Admittedly you have to jailbreak it (should be dead easy for a “tech journalist” like Matt) and download a little app called MiWi from cydia.
And yes I am a confirmed Mac/Apple “fanboy” although I don’t rush out to buy all the latest stuff because there are more important things in life-I’m still using my original iPhone and it’s still brilliant!
Sorry Matt, but how can you call yourself a journalist if you write an article THIS biased?
You say all your points are defendable, when they simply are not. Every single argument you give MIGHT somewhere down the line hold true for an OLD version of the iphone, but you are trying to make a case against the NEW one, so pretty much none of your arguments hold up.
Lets see your comment:
“So let’s look at the reasoning, in a few examples - headphones? If I buy an audio device I don’t expect the first thing I need to do is upgrade something to make it acceptable to use it on the Tube. ”
- Thats an opinion, not a fact, you FIND them to be not good enough. Next to that, we’re talking about a phone, and since you keep comparing apple to htc, their headphones aren’t any better…
“On multitasking, you seem not to have read the whole paragraph. ”
- Again you refer to older iphones, that is no reason to not buy a new one, ever… The multitasking was actually announced over a month ago during a conference about iphone os 4. How do you writing an article without checking facts? Do your homework!
“On satnav you might disagree with my assessment of its importance, but it ain’t there. ”
- by default, no, but you can buy it, it’s up to you… and when you do you get a piece of software way better than nokia’s or google’s. And if you want there’s noone who will stop you from using the google maps app that comes with the phone, which has basic nav built in
“On flash, ditto. ”
- It’s not there, like adams said, it’s all about how much you think you need it. This is the only point that might stand…
“On technology in general (which is my most important point)? Simply put, I don’t like one player being dominant in a market, and I wish there was more competition. ”
- So that makes the product bad by default? I’m sure you never use Google and prefer Bing or Yahoo because Google is too big for your taste? If apple really was only about marketing (which you say in your article) people would have stopped buying them after the first generation and every smartphone user would be using android now right? well fact is, they’re not…
“So if a big organisation chooses to make an App and discriminate in favour of one group of customers (iPhone users) and against, eg, Samsung users, I think they should be called out for it. “That’s not the same thing as saying they shouldn’t be allowed to do it.
- That’s not discrimination, thats using the facts… Why make an app for a platform which has a lot less users? It just means putting a lot of money in and getting less in return…
“My point is not to try to prove you wrong – it’s to say that every one of my points is defensible and debatable.”
- Then defend them! Throw in some FACTS to back your story up!
“Apple” did not exist in 1983. The company was listed as ” Apple computers” and after releasing the iPod, it became “Apple”.
Hey - you’re right! (Actually it was Apple Computer, without the “s”.) Does this make me more or less wrong?
Hello all - here’s the update I promised, if any of you are interested: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7811955/Apple-iPhone-4-an-update-on-those-reasons-not-to-buy-one.html
Ok here we go…
1. It’s expensive - Half-marks
Still, “expensive” is an opinion, not a fact… You could say it costs more. The upgrade price ain’t bad, but then again, that’s my opinion…
2. It’s anti-technology - Half-marks
How can you give it half marks? Seriously? Yes: it lacks some features, but it also has features other phones don’t have (or of lesser quality). It doesn’t allow you to make an wifi-hotspot.. So? It has a better screen resolution than any other phone out there, does that make any other smartphone also anti-technology?
3. No Flash - Pass
Still, this is the one that kinda holds up. I’m happy you are using an actual statistic. But then again, big sites like the New York Times are actually changing their website around to work with the iphone/ipad. So in the end users get a better (and faster) experience. So it has it’s plus side
4. No multitasking - Half marks
Again, you are focussing on previous phones, where the articles are about the NEW one, you say multitasking, iphone 4 has it. period.. Also, multitasking was announced weeks ago.
Do. Your. Homework.
5. Its battery life is terrible. - Fail
Thank you!
6. Developing apps for it is costing you money - Pass
First, how it this a reason not to buy the phone? You are saying yourself there are apps for everything, whether apps are available on another platform isn’t really the end-users problem if he buys an iphone, is it?
Also, how is developing for another platform NOT costing you money?
7. It comes with offensively bad headphones. - Pass
Again, opinion, not fact.
8. It’s not very well designed. - Fail
Yup, and since the iphone already leaked several times the last few weeks, you could’ve seen this one coming.
9. It charges for satnav. - Pass (It does. And Google Maps is no substitute)
Says you? I know plenty people that are satisfied with google maps. And you can choose between apps that are only a few bucks (anyone can spare a few bucks) up to the high-end software like navigon and tomtom. It’s your choice.
10. Those iPod docks are holding back better technologies. - Half-marks
Again, how is this relevant to a potential buyer? As a buyer, it means you can get dozens of different products with docks built in for your phone, so it just seems convenient to me…
someone needs to conclude this iphone vs anti-iphone brigade. peace is only possible if both sides give and take - and a middle path emerges.
lets say iphone is superbly sexy, easy to use for technically challenged ppl (big user group), easy buying decision for this group of users - they dont hv to spend lot of time to decide ( imp).
and yet iphone is not most technically advanced, there are phones which overtake iphone in many depts. but then ppl will have to spend time comparing phones understand technology to certain extent. only tech savvy ppl find time in life to do that.
so in short:
iphone = simple decision for non-tech savvy users.
this will continue until few clear tech-savvy winner phones emerges.
By this time - some non-tech savvy users will become tech savvy.
So we will all have competitive options and more value for money. criticism balances fanaticism and avoids keeps us from slipping into dogmas
Any consumer with a shred of common-sense will agree!!
Adam
Really enjoyed you debate regarding “10 reasons not to Buy iPhone 4″
15th June 08.32 bst: Just spoke with Orange UK to upgrade to new iPhone4 and they told me they had delayed pre-order due to “Lack of stock” apparently they only have 20,000 units need 50,000. They are taking numbers and will call back! I cannot believe Apple would do a roll out like this and then fail to supply major supply chains?
What are your thoughts?
Nick
I certainly can believe it - look what happened with the iPad. On the other hand, demand for iPad was very hard to forecast; iPhone 4 production should have been ramped up for launch. Could be some politics going on between Apple and the networks re allocations, but impossible to say without knowing how many the other networks have.
I’m on O2 and waiting for them to tell me what’s going on. Website still just says you can order or buy in shops on 24 June; you can pre-register, but not pre-order. Apparently they’re mailing out micro SIMs to pre-registered customers before 24th, which will help avoid any delay in transferring existing numbers but still doesn’t help you get hold of a phone to put it in. All seems bizarrely disorganised; you’d think they’d want to get existing customers committed to the upgrade asap. Which does suggest lack of stock: they don’t want to commit all their units to pre-order and have none on the shelves at launch.