Comments on: The real tech disappointment of 2007

PC World has called Windows Vista the biggest disappointment of 2007. But as Don Reisinger points out, the publication has it all wrong. The real disappointment was Apple's decision to brick iPhones.

[AppleSuxLeo]

No GPS , no replaceable battery , no 3G , no Exchange Server compatibility , no Haptics , no real keyboard , no live TV and a lot more reasons the iPhone is nothing more than a walled-garden , handcuffed , wallet biopsy machine bought by those who believed the bald-headed RDF generator named Steve Jobs. And to make matters worse , it is on a ****-poor network named ATT. And now that we have the LG Voyager on Verizon , there is no need for the iPhone.
Touch that does so much more...Voyager by LG...on the best data and voice network.

[sdotbailey4]

you must work for verizon. or just be a troll. the voyager isn't anywhere close to the iPhone. Tool.

[slimpunk]

I have Verizon, and they lock down or disable every cool feature Motorola and other phone manufacturers implement in favor of their own, much crappier features. Come on, Vcast? Who the hell really cares about watching "live" TV on their phone? Freakin' stupid...

[TRENTONN]

I completely agree, for what makes any smartphone great is the ability to customize it. As a fan of Apple I am amazed and impressed at the quality, fit and finish of many products that have been released. It is discouraging to sit back and have Apple appear as a dictatorship in the way that they've been approaching the possibility of an unlocked iPhone, but it is what it is.

To a certain extent I can understand why Apple would want to limit the tweaking of the iPhone, because there is an interest to keep a great user experience intact. However, an enhancement to a great user experience involves personal choice of how to use a specific device. No one with one iota of interest in having full control of their device would want to be told how to use it or be kept from doing certain things with it.

As much as I have been impressed with the iPhone's beautiful and mesmerizing interface, it only seems to be nothing more than eye candy.

[mcooper13]

Along with this disappointment is the pathetic response of Apple defenders. There really is little critical thinking in the Mac community - just blind devotion to Steve Jobs. It must be because so many of them are undeservingly wealthy and happen to be Apple stockholders.

Why else would they bash the iPhone unlockers saying that they hurt Apple's bottom line (apparently Apple gets a kickback from AT&T).

They've also rationalized the bricking, mentioning some vague applespeak about "unforseen technical reasons" that the phones were rendered unusable. What B.S.

I'm glad I already had an AT&T account so that was never an issue with me. If they brick my iPhone I'll never buy an Apple product again. They handled this very poorly. This Apple user will not be an apologist for this increasingly evil company.

[buffybuffyrabit]

What is truly sad is how many people wasted money on the iPhone. These same people are the ones buying rap CD's. People with no thought of their own. The iPhone is ok. Just ok. AT&T is the worst carrier in the USA. The 1# complaint from iPhone users, AT&T's network. Slow, coverage barely anywhere, and costly. And morons bought the phone anyways. So the iPhone needs to be on the List. Not number one, that is Vista, but still number 2. Now you iPhone users who can't get service in your house because you switched from a dependable service like Sprint or Verizon to AT&T, HAHAHA!!! You now have to pay the ETF, or just stick with your $100 a month, S***Y service!! HAHAHA!!!

[msherer]

I took an iPhone and a Verizon EVDO card on a trip and where I stayed the EVDO signal was too weak to do any productive work so I used my iPhone to stay on top of email, surf the web, etc. One thing I've learned about Apple in recent years is that even the decisions they take heat for in the community generally have solid business reasons behind them. Edge is ubiquitous, WiFi is fast, the iPhone has them both. Works for me.

Installer.app is an awesome hack that shows what could be done, but frankly the iPhone already so far surpasses any other phone I've used that i don't mind waiting for the officially blessed solution for third party apps. Call me a sheep, but I'm a satisfied iPhone user.

[pecos-bill]

Apple warned you that the software update may disable your phone but you installed it anyway? Sounds like you, especially being a tech columnist, should pay more attention.

[crisnet]

I couldn't have said it better! Good one Pecos-bill. I don't understand why a company is so widely criticized for safeguarding their product. It is what it is: you want the iPhone, there are rules.
I was a Verizon customer and HATED the stupid red interface and my options for phones were so limited it just drove me away. AT&T doesn't have the best service in my area but it has improved since the iPhone was introduced.
The device itself can be improved OBVIOUSLY, after all, the first digital camera/computer/iPod/camcorder/TV/GPS/fridge/stereo system every person who has reply to this column bought years ago is a far cry from what you own today. Give me a break people.

[john55440]

The bugfest known as Leopard is also on PC World's Biggest Tech Disappointments list. Apple claims to be oh-so-perfect, but Leopard is poor-to-mediocre.

Apple TV is the biggest failure of the year. Forbes magazine calls it "a flat-out iFlop".

[sdotbailey4]

yep. big flop. it still sold more units than TiVo. some flop.

[olivierroure]

I don't know understand what you are writing about AT&T being horrible and T-Mobile being great.
I have both (personal AT&T and Work T-Mobile my wife has Verizon) I have not purchased an iPhone yet (waiting for next generation) but all I can say is T-Mobile's service is HORRIBLE i have to forward all my calls to my AT&T to be able to get my calls.
I am one of this guys who believe that unfortunately all phone providers are horrible anyway.

[FormerPCwonk]

First of all, I love the idea that Vista can?t be the biggest disappointment, because no one really expected much from it. Perhaps that is true of the people on these boards, but others (namely the average user looking for the ?Wow,? shareholders and Wall Street analysts) expected an awful lot. As did the people who put off PC purchases so they could get the upgrade on the purchase, only to find out that the computer was essentially useless from day one (MS has Apple beat there; while Apple required an optional update to make its modified phones useless, thus limiting the update's ability to brick phones, MS managed to build the inoperability into all versions of Vista, making it useless to every user. Score one for Redmond.)

Now, about that iPhone. It?s terrible that Apple pushed out an involuntary update that bricked. . .wait? What?s that? It was an OPTIONAL update? Hmmm. Now let?s be honest. Was it TRULY optional? There was some indispensable feature attached to it, right, thus making it ?volandatory,? right? (Volandatory = something that is claimed to be voluntary but is really mandatory. . .if you had a bricked iPhone this year, you?re probably not swift enough to otherwise understand the meaning of this word.) Did it add GPS or 3G? No? Hmmm. Well, I?m sure there were no warnings; Apple simply blindsided all those people that had. . . What? They issued a press release indicating the likely ?bricking?? And people who had modified their phones still installed it? Wow, that seems rather, well, STUPID. Literally, that behavior makes no sense at all.

Let?s sum up. The company releases a closed product, and sells it that way. People buy the closed product, open it, are warned that an impending OPTIONAL update may make it inoperable (due largely to the fact that Apple isn?t about to hike up its development costs by working around modifications that run counter to the nature of the product as sold), ignore the warning and install the update, and then complain that the phone is inoperable? Pardon me for saying, but his sounds rather moronic, especially when there are legitimately ?open? phones. The bottom line here is that if you?re one of these people, and you want to find the biggest disappointment of 2007, look in the mirror.

[bandgeek87]

Wow... I could not have said it better myself. The iPhone is an absolutely incredible piece of machine because it has completely changed the face of the phone industry forever. The iPhone is going to be the common denominator by which everyone will be judging their products from here on out. I'm very disappointed that it didn't have 3G or GPS or a full keyboard, which is why I got an LG Voyager. The LG Voyager, in turn, has a terrible music interface, a somewhat ****** (compared to iPhone) touch screen, no Wifi and honestly, a pretty crappy interface all around compared to the iPhone. But you have to remember that if the LG Voyager is "better," then it's only because of the iPhone. Can anybody on this forum honestly say that the LG Voyager (and the other slew of touch screen phones that will be and have already hit the market) would be even a 3rd of the phone it is today if it weren't for Apple raising the bar for other phone manufacturer's? No, I don't think you can. Look at the phone that came before this one... The LG VX9900 also known as the LG enV. POS compared to the Voyager.

[cjurk]

I can't believe the entitlement. A main reason Apple doesn't support other carriers or other software is because they need to control the user experience. That is why their products are so elegant - they have total control. The rules are simple - be an AT&T customer and use only the apps installed by Apple/available using the Safari web browser. You don't want to play by the rules? Buy someone else's products and stop complaining.

[bburn--2008]

I totally agree. Apple screwed on that AT&T exclusive BS! And no it's true, Vista is not half as bad as I first thought it would be; not quite all that good but it's not a disappointment.

[rcrusoe]

Oh yeah, the iPhone is a huge disappointment - for the competition. We have several in my company, and it took all of 5 minutes for iTunes to automatically to set them up on our email system. Our users have had zero problems. In fact, we've spend a total of 15 minutes on iPhone support so far.

The lack of 3G doesn't seem to be a factor in the real world since the Safari browser more than makes up for the difference in network speed. Pages are being rendered on the iPhone faster than possible on any 3G phone. Several examples of this can be found on Youtube.

And as far as ATT, I've been a customer since the Bellsouth Mobility days. I've traveled extensively though the SouthEast and Midwest and have never had a coverage problem. And they don't cripple features so you have to pay extra to sync/backup the data on your phone. Something my coworkers tell me is common with Verizon.

[raulmot]

Two things. First, you can unbrick and revirginize your phone to upgrade software. Second, even on the hacker forums, it is recognized that first free unlock was rushed out and implemented poorly by screwing up the baseband (the IPSF pay unlocks did not get bricked). Subsequent releases of the unlock application are properly coded and will not brick upon software upgrade. Yeah it would have been nice if apple supported application developers from the start, but you can't blame them for protecting their revenue stream either.

[ggore]

I have not one iota of sympathy for this author or any of the other ******** about the so-called "bricking" of their iPhones. They can ***** & moan & whine as long as they want, but what happened to their phones was THEIR fault, not Apple's.

Apple sold the phone as being locked to AT&T's network, good or bad. And locked to that network for some unspecified period of time. Some "hackers", I call them criminals for various reasons, came up with a way to circumvent Apple and AT&T's restrictions and this guy and other installed these hacks, thereby violating their warranty, terms of service, and service contract with AT&T.

Apple updated the firmware and software in a perfectly normal way, assuming, and rightly so that every legal phone would take the update and continue working. I use the word LEGAL, because what these people did was ILLEGAL according to the agreements and contracts they signed with AT&T. Plain & simple, and I'm tired of the ******** about it. If you break rules and laws, whatever happens is YOUR fault, not anyone else's, and you accept the consequences, whatever they might be.

[erwinfletch]

Vista isn't the biggest disappointment because everyone expected it to be a disappointment? That makes no sense.

[phillynets]

The iPhone is expensive - far more than you idiots paid for it. I'm glad you enjoy it.

Whenever you hack something you are doing something that the manufacturer did not intend. If, lo and behold, they decide to fix the problem what are you ******** about? There are contractural obligations that Apple must adhere to regarding the iPhone and the exclusive AT&T deal - you knew it when you bought it sooo - quit with the ********'.

If you hack into Bank of America, even if it was just to change your account's GUI, wouldn't you be more concerned if they didn't do anything about your intrusion. The iPhone is a device and a network and a contract. While you did pay alot for the thing, AT&T is subsidizing the phone (i.e. kick-backs, residuals...).

Cell phone coverage varies from one area to another, so one weekend in a motel doesn't a whole network decide. Besides, if the T-Mobile tower was next to you... That the columnist signaled T-Mobile is ridiculous. Verizon is a much better service, by and large, and is certainly better than the Sprint that I use. By T-Mobile? That's for travelling internationally.

[MNNice]

Wow. This is what happens when parents raise children without the concept of "NO". You are not entitled to set the rules for any company unless you have the balls and the brains to develop your own. You break the "rules" you suffer the consequences. Grow up.

[aronsonfile]

Interesting take. It didn't quite get off to as good a start as Apple's iPod did it? Don't know if it's one of the top 10 tech disappointments of 2007. Apple should definitely open up the iPhone so Verizon, T-mobile customers can use it too. http://aronsonfile.blogspot.com/2007/12/apples-iphone-voted-one-of-top-tech.html

[coryschulz]

I love my iPhone and even get great service through AT&T, but I must admit that Apple should not have bricked people's phones. That's just rude to charge them so much for a new device and then completely ruin it. They could simply reset the device. Vista was a pretty big disappointment though. They should both be on the list.

[drwam]

I am an Apple fanboy. I love my iPhone but I am disappointed with it. The disappointment is in having such a well designed portable computing device and being unable to add software capabilities. Apple spoke of new software being added to the iPhone post launch, but so far, only the Music Store app has been added. That sucks, plain and simple. Every time you go the the calculator and find no square root key, you're heart sinks just a bit. When I see a colleague and they ask if it works with Exchange, you just wonder what the hell Apple is thinking. The lack of Exchange connectivity alone has cost Apple MILLIONS of sales. So, you are left with the iPhone conundrum--you love what it can do and are frustrated by what it won't (not can't) do.
Not to apologize for Apple, but I think they shipped a fundamentally insecure device to get it to market ASAP. If I am right, there is an iPhone OS 2.0 ready to be demo'd at MacWorld in January. That will be designed to work with the SDK and will have features to make the device much more secure. If nothing like that is in the works, then mark it down as the biggest disappointment of 2008.
BTW, ATT service is not as good as Verizon but it is very usable for me. No deal breaker there.