iPhone 3G Struggles

Posted by admin

July 18, 2008

As one of the greatest new pieces of technology on the market, the iPhone 3G has been praised non-stop by the general media, but a sad series of shortcomings and problems have arisen to those who do their research. There is no question that the iPhone is a great phone and works better than any other phone on the market, but the 3G seems to be a step in the wrong direction rather than the right.

The main issue for many is the price point. The iPhone 3G was touted by Steve Jobs as “half the price” as if Apple did some huge favor to consumers, and cut the price in half out of the goodness of their hearts. In reality though, this piece of hardware costs, in most plans, about $20 more per month than the original. AT&T is gouging their customers, with jacked up prices for the same services, as well as traditionally extremely high texting prices. I’m sure most consumers would take a higher price on their phone over significantly higher monthly costs.

While the 3G is obviously the phone’s high point, and works well where available, it notoriously devours battery life. With all the push features, Bluetooth, 3G, and GPS on, battery life can approach 4 hours according to some sources, not feasible for any consumer. To improve battery life, the features that the phone was bought for must manually be turned off, seems kind of illogical doesn’t it?
On top of all this, Apple seems to have had a rocky start with the 2.0 firmware update, Mobile Me, and App Store, all of which are known to be buggy and unreliable as of now. While the phone is a technology masterpiece, as well as a piece of art, perhaps Apple should have spent a bit longer and got it right for the sequel to such a revolutionary first phone.