I’m surprised by many commenters’ willingness to accept what’s on their plate and not insist on something better and achievable. In particular, this bit:

“I don’t understand… you have 2 players: the phone manufacturer and the carrier. Who else is supposed to control the experience? AT&T has ceded tons of control to Apple, which is great. Try a Verizon phone lately? How’s that UI for user experience?”

This betrays a common mind-set. Two players? Aren’t you missing the third player? That’s the person who buys the phone and subscribes to the service. THAT’S who should control the experience, to a fairly major degree, and who would control it if we didn’t permit these companies to dictate things so completely.

As I said in the initial piece, there’s an enormous amount of innovation in this device. When Apple fixes what it surely knows is wrong with the thing — and that specifically includes the ability to do business with a different carrier — then I may well buy one.

By then, of course, other companies could well match or beat the iPhone’s best features. Apple has given them an opening.

>>>I don’t understand… you have 2 players: the phone manufacturer and the carrier. Who else is supposed to control the experience? AT&T has ceded tons of control to Apple, which is great. Try a Verizon phone lately? How’s that UI for user experience?

Also the spectre of signing a new contract with AT&T was a put off.

Since I am a current AT&T customer, the other option was paying $20/mo. over and above the new contract. That is pure insanity, as the cost for cancellation of a contract is less than half of the increased cost margin for current AT&T customers for the 2 year contract period!

I ended up purchasing an HTC X7501 because it has all the hardware features that Apple doesn’t and outdoes the iPhone in others:

3G, it is unlocked, keyboard and Palm Graffiti-like text entry, 3.0 MP camera with video, removable/replaceable battery, 8Gb drive, SIM card is easy to swap out, software can be added, can use it without activation, VGA out, BT, WiFi, GPS radio, the list goes on.

Of course the HTC is bulkier than the iPhone but the the screen is 5.0″ compared to the 3.5″ of the iPhone. The magnetic keyboard can also be left behind.

For a first effort the iPhone is incredible, but the v1.0 deficiencies, cell carrier lock-in, and have a locked software suite are all too Big Brother for my taste.

Keith Walker

I enjoyed the iPhone for 13 days (14 day return policy), and had to return it for one reason. My company wouldn’t enable the (less secure) iMap features of Exchange. So, corporate email was only available through Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Outlook Mobile Access (OMA). These performed workably on the iPhone, but it was cumbersome. Each time going in, you had to type in userid and PW, and you had to scroll around on the screen with very tiny text to navigate — trying to hit the “X’ to delete in OWA was tricky. While doable, it just couldn’t do it easily.

I know there are some new companies around who are offering to push your email to the iPhone by downloading from OWA onto their servers, then pushing to the iPhone. This would specifically be grounds for firing in my company, so probably not worth it.

So, while the iPhone was great for pictures (magical interface, really!), music (coverflow is nice), and email (non-Corporate) scrolling is truly revolutionary…the Exchange limitation (for now) was a deal breaker.

By the way, battery life was far superior to any phone I’ve ever used (MotoQ now). As long as it lasts a couple of years, it’ll be great for most people.

A tiny beef was that AT&T charged a restocking fee on not just the iPhone (10%), but each of the accessories purchased at buy-time, even though they were not opened.

Incredible work, Apple/Steve, and as soon as Exchange works natively, I’ll be back immediately.

Be consistent about the things you complain relative to your utility function.

I am willing to take such a review seriously but from a person that qualifies their statements by stating their buying and usage patterns. Your review implied iPhone 1.0 is a flawed product. It’s not. It does not make coffee but then Apple did not advertise it as such. And it’s not “shamelessly overhyped” unless you clearly state which hyped feature does not work for you. Software lock down is public knowledge. Use of EDGE is public knowledge (BTW read arstechnica.com. they have an article on their experiences with Verizon’s EvDO in Chicago area–it’s not as if AT&T is bad whilst Verizon never disappoints to meet their data offering specifications).

It’s all about your preferences and expectations that perhaps this product does not meet them. But please be clear about expectations so that we can put your comments in perspective and judge for ourselves. I feel seriously patronized by your writing.

However I certainly agree on one complain: T-mobile unlocks their handsets after 3 months into a contract. They just did for my Blackberry Pearl, just before I dumped them for AT&T and iPhone. Locking a phone with no indication on how/when to undo the lock, as is the case with iPhone, is representative of the state of cellular networks in the US: they either use CDMA2000 technology, which employs no SIM and thus unlocking is not applicable, or operate fractured and disparate GSM networks where the incentive to compete is weak. Try the UK where whilst there’s no law (as far as I remember) to force unlocking, market forces have resulted in limited (short) or no locking of SIM/handsets.

Addition comments for Mr. Gilmore…

Despite your negative feelings, I would have thought you’d acknowledge what the iPhone will do for the category in general. The bar has been raised to such a level in terms of UI, new features, etc, that this can’t be anything but good news for future products (read: consumers), regardless of manufacturer. The rising tide will indeed raise all boats, offering more technology, choices, etc, to everyone.

With regards to Apple controlling the experience, so what? My God, my sign-up on iTunes beat the hell out of spending an interminable amount of time with someone filling in forms at the store. Besides, tell me who out there is providing a better experience in this category and/or how Apple has failed in this area? All I can say is thank God it wasn’t Dell blazing this trail.

I don’t understand… you have 2 players: the phone manufacturer and the carrier. Who else is supposed to control the experience? AT&T has ceded tons of control to Apple, which is great. Try a Verizon phone lately? How’s that UI for user experience?

–”I’m a frequent traveler outside the U.S., and this phone doesn’t cut it for serious international use.”

Well then the iPhone’s not for you. It’ll just have to be for the 99% of Americans who have no need to regularly use their phones in other countries.

–”The camera is adequate for some purposes, and that’s the best you can say about it. There’s no zoom, and no video recording mode.

An especially cheesy “feature” is a headphone jack that requires an adapter for many popular headsets (or some surgery on your current headphone plug). There’s no excuse for this.”

Good point and good point.

–”More lockdown: The iPhone is unusable in any capacity until it’s activated with the phone company. Want to use it just for Wi-Fi-based Web browsing, plus video and audio and note-taking? Forget it.”

Why would you buy an iPhone and not activate it? The number of people who would do this would be infinitely small. This is a non-issue.

You make some good points, but many of your complaints are nitpicks that only apply to a tiny fraction of the potential user base. I, for one, could never go back to using another cell phone.