One of the trending topics on twitter today is “I quit the Iphone”. At first I had no idea what this was in regards to but some digging around turned up an article by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. Now I normally take what he says with a grain of salt as he tends to be a little extreme with his views, but he isn’t the only one that has lost their passion for the IPhone.
Mike says
I was there in January 2007 when it was announced and I bought the first iPhone as soon as it was available. I happily bought the iPhone 3G a year later. I’ve proudly yelled “I Am A Member Of The Cult Of iPhone.” I’ve been an unabashed cheerleader for the device to all who’ll listen. And I’ve scoffed at developers who said they’d abandon the platform…
What finally put me over the edge? It wasn’t the routinely dropped calls, something you can only truly understand once you have owned an iPhone. I’ve lived with that for two years. It’s not the lack of AT&T coverage at home. I’ve lived with that for two years, too. It certainly isn’t the lack of a physical keyboard, that has never bothered me. No, what finally put me over the edge is the Google Voice debacle…..
Or so I thought. Apple and AT&T are now blocking the iPhone version of the Google Voice app. Why? Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing – moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe….
I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is worth leaving AT&T for, especially when there are so many other good reasons to do so, but I can under stand why it would be a frustration. If you have a cell phone number should you not be able to use the number as you see fit, baring any illegal activity? As more and more people use their cellphones as a their main point of contact it is becoming imperative that we be able to control who is allowed to contact us and when they are allowed to do so.
GrandCentral created the solution to this problem and Google acquired it, making it into Google Voice. With Google at the helm there is a great chance of success for the program but only if you are allowed to use it. It seems to me that AT&T doesn’t want to allow their users to utilize conveniences unless they provide it and control it. I amd remindedof the list of of features that were rolled out for the 3gs that were available on networks other than AT&T. I wouldn’t want to be with a company that says “Sure your device can do this but we don’t want you to so you can’t”
Mike isn’t the only one who has had problems though. Om Malik from GigaOm also left AT&T and the Iphone for what I believe is a more justified reason.
Om Malik said
Earlier this morning, after enduring days and days of dropped calls and errant network behavior, I quit on my iPhone. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it had to be done. I depend almost exclusively on my mobile phone for my communications. Whether it be surfing the web, checking email, sending text messages or talking — my mobile is the center of my daily existence.
That being said, AT&T’s network just wasn’t cutting it for me. I even tried using a BlackBerry, but the network issues never quite went away. Then over the past few days, my iPhone was spending ungodly stretches of time “searching” for the network, the download speeds of web pages slowed down, and email — well that’s a whole other story. The static, the dropped calls and above all the shoddy call quality were enough to raise my blood pressure. And given my medical history, that’s not a good thing. The only feature that worked flawlessly: SMS.
I love my iPhone — but AT&T’s network has failed me.
He isn’t alone in this issue, not by a long shot. Before the Iphone was even in existence I jumped ship from AT&T for the exact same reasons. My calls were consistently dropped and the service just wasn’t reliable. This seems to be a regional thing. I was in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time so, of course, I think that this is a pretty important area to have reliable service in, as egotistical as we all are.
Two of my friends on twitter have weighed in on this subject to say
tremorx: yeah.. and I think the network issues are entirely locational; AT&T has vastly better coverage where I am than anyone else.
squash86: @tremorx this is very true in Buffalo. I get great signal and data (1200/300).
It definitely seems that this is a case of “your mileage may vary” but I for one am happy to see some negative press for the IPhone every once in a while.
You can read Mike Arrington’s article Here
You can read Om Malik’s article Here
