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I don't think Jobs' anger is legitimate at all. Yes, all phone have problems, and sometimes the media misreports on them (look at the DroidX/eFuse story, for in

I don't think Jobs' anger is legitimate at all. Yes, all phone have problems, and sometimes the media misreports on them (look at the DroidX/eFuse story, for instance). What's different, however, with Apple's iOS platform, is that there's only two choices available to consumers: use an iPhone 4 or use an iPhone 3GS. By narrowing the market so dramatically, Apple makes otherwise forgivable flaws into acute failures. If you like to hold your phone differently than how Apple thinks you should, then too bad-- that's their only current-gen phone. I think that, more than anything, is what legitimizes turning an otherwise minor issue into a complete shitstorm. The antenna problem is one forced on consumers of iOS devices, including those consumers with a significant amount of money invested in paid iOS apps that can't leave the platform without leaving those behind. The antenna problems illustrate why buying an iPhone is always a losing deal: the consumer has no choices other than those Apple explicitly allows. Now if only people reacted so strongly to the horrendous lockdown of the iPhone and of the App Store.

MWinther 16y ago
I'm sorry, but do you honestly compare the Droid X eFuse story, which has been written about in select geek blogs to some extent to the iPhone 4 reception story, which has occupied pretty much every mainstream news reporting media outlet for quite a while now?
- cgranade 16y ago
  I was comparing the wrongness of the story, and how it was relatively easily defused by further research and by honesty on the part of Motorola. Mind you, there response left much to be desired, but it was a vast improvement over the "there's not problem" response from Apple.
glhaynes 16y ago
If you like to hold your phone differently than how Apple thinks you should, then too bad-- that's their only current-gen phone. Or you can get their free case, which leaves it still thinner and arguably better looking than most other phones on the market. The antenna problems illustrate why buying an iPhone is always a losing deal That seems really hyperbolic... always a losing deal? Unless perhaps you assume that the portion of critical-problem-havers is 100%. In actuality, it's a tiny fraction. (And, of that tiny fraction in this particular case, the vast majority can be solved with the free case.) Could Apple someday be struck by the inability to make a good product, leaving users with no upgrade path? I guess so, but that doesn't keep me from buying what appears to be for me easily the best device on the market. If that ever changes, yeah, I'll have to find replacements for maybe $50 worth of apps. Not the end of the world -- it's not like I'm signing on me and the next few generations to Apple-only.
- cgranade 16y ago
  To start with, the free case is a very recent concession that was made in response to intense media pressure (whether deserved or not). Moreover, I didn't say that the antenna problem is a critical problem for all users, but I said it illustrates why for all users, it's a sucker deal. You are betting against Apple ever deciding that its one sanctioned upgrade path should go in a direction you don't like. You are gambling not that Apple will suddenly be unable to make good products, but that their design decisions will be different from your needs and desires. Moreover, there is likely a lot more investment in the platform than just $50 of apps. As for "easily the best device on the market," that's only true if you are completely fine with a device that does only and exactly what Apple allows it to do, rather than a device that is, as computers throughout their entire history as successful consumer devices have been, designed to allow you to do what you want-- including create and innovate. Compare the approach of Google's App Inventor to the approach of Apple's monolithic and cryptographically signed dev chain, for one specific example of what I mean.
  - glhaynes 16y ago
    I understand what you're saying, but the vast majority of people who have iPhones (and the people who Apple is explicitly targeting with their product design and marketing), are completely fine with a device that "does only and exactly what Apple allows it to do". So to say that "for all users it's a sucker's deal" is to ignore these millions and millions of people while making a statement about yourself and your tastes and desires. For you, apparently the iPhone's tradeoffs are unacceptable, and that's fine. I'm sympathetic with what you're saying: in theory, it sounds obvious that an open ecosystem where every device manufacturer can create whatever they want is going to lead to better hardware than Apple could ever compete with. In reality, that just could not be farther from the truth for a huge group of people: there's not another phone I like better than the iPhone 4, so I'm "stuck" with Apple — not because they have me locked in but because nobody else seems to make a phone whose particular tradeoffs are more in line with what I desire.

MWinther 16y ago

I'm sorry, but do you honestly compare the Droid X eFuse story, which has been written about in select geek blogs to some extent to the iPhone 4 reception story, which has occupied pretty much every mainstream news reporting media outlet for quite a while now?

cgranade 16y ago
I was comparing the wrongness of the story, and how it was relatively easily defused by further research and by honesty on the part of Motorola. Mind you, there response left much to be desired, but it was a vast improvement over the "there's not problem" response from Apple.

glhaynes 16y ago

If you like to hold your phone differently than how Apple thinks you should, then too bad-- that's their only current-gen phone. Or you can get their free case, which leaves it still thinner and arguably better looking than most other phones on the market. The antenna problems illustrate why buying an iPhone is always a losing deal That seems really hyperbolic... always a losing deal? Unless perhaps you assume that the portion of critical-problem-havers is 100%. In actuality, it's a tiny fraction. (And, of that tiny fraction in this particular case, the vast majority can be solved with the free case.) Could Apple someday be struck by the inability to make a good product, leaving users with no upgrade path? I guess so, but that doesn't keep me from buying what appears to be for me easily the best device on the market. If that ever changes, yeah, I'll have to find replacements for maybe $50 worth of apps. Not the end of the world -- it's not like I'm signing on me and the next few generations to Apple-only.

cgranade 16y ago
To start with, the free case is a very recent concession that was made in response to intense media pressure (whether deserved or not). Moreover, I didn't say that the antenna problem is a critical problem for all users, but I said it illustrates why for all users, it's a sucker deal. You are betting against Apple ever deciding that its one sanctioned upgrade path should go in a direction you don't like. You are gambling not that Apple will suddenly be unable to make good products, but that their design decisions will be different from your needs and desires. Moreover, there is likely a lot more investment in the platform than just $50 of apps. As for "easily the best device on the market," that's only true if you are completely fine with a device that does only and exactly what Apple allows it to do, rather than a device that is, as computers throughout their entire history as successful consumer devices have been, designed to allow you to do what you want-- including create and innovate. Compare the approach of Google's App Inventor to the approach of Apple's monolithic and cryptographically signed dev chain, for one specific example of what I mean.
- glhaynes 16y ago
  I understand what you're saying, but the vast majority of people who have iPhones (and the people who Apple is explicitly targeting with their product design and marketing), are completely fine with a device that "does only and exactly what Apple allows it to do". So to say that "for all users it's a sucker's deal" is to ignore these millions and millions of people while making a statement about yourself and your tastes and desires. For you, apparently the iPhone's tradeoffs are unacceptable, and that's fine. I'm sympathetic with what you're saying: in theory, it sounds obvious that an open ecosystem where every device manufacturer can create whatever they want is going to lead to better hardware than Apple could ever compete with. In reality, that just could not be farther from the truth for a huge group of people: there's not another phone I like better than the iPhone 4, so I'm "stuck" with Apple — not because they have me locked in but because nobody else seems to make a phone whose particular tradeoffs are more in line with what I desire.