Defending the iPhone
As the iphone continues to sell extremely well, a number of print and online publications continue to have an affinity for attacking Apple without any semblance of informed writing.
Admittedly, the iphone 3G has more than its fair share of problems and glitches, yet the most often shouted critiques tend to be the most ridiculous.
One of the most common complaints against the new iphone relates to its cost. Apple currently sells the iphone for 199 dollars, and yes folks, that IS half the price of what it used to be. And keep in mind that the 8gb model cost $599 less than a year ago.
The iphone is extremely more affordable today than it was ever before, but people continuously like to point out that the cost of iphone ownership exceeds $199 because of the necessary phone plan that's required. Well no shit sherlock. This isn't anything new, and it's curious why the "cost of ownership" for the iphone is always mentioned, with nary a peep about other phones. Probably because anybody with a partially functioning brain knows how phone contracts work. People routinely pay over 60 dollars a month to own Blackberry's and Palm Treos. Yet open up a paper and you might read about how an iphone costs $1000 a year to own. When you buy a car, you don't factor in the cost of gas or cost of upkeep unless those costs are unique to that car. Same thing goes with phones. The iphone is a phone, and the costs associated with purchasing an iphone are the exact same as with ALL other phones.
Rambling and misguided iphone critiques have gotten so desperate that people will criticize the iphone for lacking certain functions, only to criticize it once again when that function is finally implemented. For example, when the first iphone came out, critics and consumers derided it for having no GPS capability. So what does Apple do? It delivers a GPS capable phone only 1 year later, and people are soon complaining that there isn't a turn by turn GPS program ready to use right out of the box. Similarly, critics complained that the initial iphone lacked 3G, and yet again, Apple delivered it 1 year later. But people were soon complaining that the battery life wasn't as good as it was on Edge, despite the fact that testing has shown the iphone to be superior in its class when it comes to battery life.
One of the worst culprits in the idiotic wave of anti-iphone analysis came in a recently published article at informationweek. The gist of the article is that Apple is ruining the app store because certain applications aren't allowed to run in the background. As has already been explained in detail in a number of other places, allowing apps to run in the background is an incredible drain on the battery, as evidenced by Windows Mobile. Furthermore, Apple has a solution to this 'problem' in the form of their push server which is going to be released in September. But the kicker is that the author of this article acknowledges these facts in his article, yet still maintains that Steve Jobs is ruining the app store. Maybe he thinks he'll get more visitors if he writes about Apple, or maybe he was on a deadline and couldn't think of anything of substance to write about, but whatever the case, he should put down the pen.
Then you have the uber-geeks who complain that you can't tether the iphone to a laptop. Maybe this is a good thing in that it will give these complainers a reason to actually go outside and interact with society.
Again, I'm not here to argue that the iphone is perfect as there are many things that can still be impoved upon, or even added. But there is no denying that Apple has done a great job in addressing many of the initial iphone complaints in only a years time. Whether its the new flush headphone jack, GPS, 3G, or third party apps, Apple has succeeded in enhancing a product that many people already thought was great. Criticism is fine, but the blowhard anti-iphone articles are getting old and annoying.
The bottom line is that the iphone is just that, a phone. It does some things really well, some things okay, and believe it or not, there are some things it just doesn't do at all. If a 2mp camera phone isn't good enough for you, then go buy a different camera, or, gasp!, go buy a freakin camera! Don't trust these blowhards who write ridiculous lists with titles such as "14 reasons why the iphone blows" or "6 reasons why a phone that hasn't yet been designed kicks the iphone's ass!! Go out and experience one for yourself. The web is typically a great place to research gizmos and gadgets, but when it comes to Apple, you have to be careful to weed out the bullshit from the meat and potatoes. Unfortunately, the bullshit abounds.
Take a whiff.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/06/five_reasons_no.html -- This idiotic entry says you shouldn't buy an iphone because it has no physical keyboard. That's one of the features for crying out loud. That's like saying you shouldn't buy corvette because the roof can come down.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/32/52271-seven-reasons-new-iphone-sucks -- Divinely idiotic is more like it.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/steve_jobs_deci.html -- Informationweek? Oh sweet irony.
