26
iPhone 2.0 - Unacceptable Quality
Posted at 1:38 AM by Mitchell HashimotoI feel terrible as I type this post right now. I’m an avid Apple user, I’ve had my MacBook pro since it came out (it is the original!) and I’ve had iPods and everything in between. I also got an iPhone later last year after becoming an Apple Store retail employee.
This year I decided to sit out and get the iPhone 3G! It was a lot of fun sitting out and was quite an experience but unfortunately the phone itself does not deliver.
In addition to getting the iPhone 3G I had been acquainted to the iPhone 2.0 software early since I was in the developer program. When I heard that the build number on the 3G was the same as last beta of the iPhone 2.0 software, I was terrified. My beta build was riddled with crashes, hangs, slow-syncs, and more.
I hoped this was specific to the iPhone and that the 3G hardware would somehow magically fix this.
It did not.
Just now I received a phone call and “swiped” to answer it and the phone CRASHED. That’s right, it crashed. I restarted it, got another phone call, answered it, and this time it froze for a solid 5 to 10 seconds before answering. After finishing the call, I moved the phone away from my ear, awaiting the screen to turn back on so I could “End Call.” Unfortunately, the screen never turned back on! And the person on the other line (luckily a family member) heard me cussing and hitting my screen to get it to hang up.
This crossed the line.
I can deal with my touch keypad hanging up, I can deal with painfully slow syncing, I can deal with a few instabilities with user-land software. But I can NOT handle that the iPhone — which as I remember Steve Jobs saying the most important part was the PHONE — cannot be a reliable phone.
I will not get rid of the phone, it is far too valuable to me with my contacts, calendars, software, etc. to throw away so easily, but I just have to say: Shame on you Apple, shame on you! How could such poor quality software ship out the door so quickly?
3 comments made so far.
Jose Pablo Aug 31, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Thanks for the advice… (I just purchased a used iPhone for $200). Here @ Costa Rica we have to crack them so they can work with our phone provider… also we don’t have the technology that supports the new features of the G3 iPhone… so, I’m very glad to hear that I didn’t make such a bad decision….
I read on one of your posts that you were a developer for Apple… so I was wondering if you have worked on an app for the iPhone…. It would be an honor for me to installed on my iPhone 
Uwe Horstmann Sep 20, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Unfortunately, this pretty much is the same as I’m experiencing with my original iPhone. Very annoying, yesterday I had noticed that it had crashed during an incoming call, maybe already quite a time before I noticed. Screen still showed, yet no action possible. So much - as you pointed out - for a reliable phone.
Daniel Fischer Jul 26, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Ack, that doesn’t sound good at all. I still have my first gen iPhone, I was thinking about buying the 3G sometime within the next week or so but now I am really feeling the hesitation of not getting one.