Comments on: 3G iPhone: Skip this Upgrade

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:58:18 +0000

Steve- You can always get an iPhone and “unlock” it to use with other carriers. You lose the visual voicemail feature, which for me is one the best features of the phone, but you then get your choice of carrier. Of course that voids the warranty, eliminates support, etc.

Mark- The unreplacable battery is indeed a bad feature, especially given the new 3G’s battery sucking tendencies.

Cedric- Actually if I did not have the first-gen I would get on board with the new one. However as the 2.0 software will be a free upgrade for me anyway, that leaves no compelling reason to get the new one.

By: cedricstudio

cedricstudio — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:39:52 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up about text messaging charges no longer being included. I hadn’t heard about that little wrinkle.

My wife and I own first-generation iphones and we won’t be buying the upgrade either. The GPS and 3G would really be nice, but I don’t need them enough to justify the extra $$$ (double for us since it would mean buying two new iphones). The Google Maps feature gets me where I need to be, and the Edge download speed is certainly tolerable.

Still, if I had never purchased an iPhone before this would certainly be a good time to do it.

The App store is looking pretty nice too. Lots of great stuff (assuming there aren’t any third-party bugs to cause problems). I’ve already downloaded several free apps and can’t wait to use them.

By: Mark Hill

Mark Hill — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:04:03 +0000

Very good analysis, Tom. And I agree…if you have one, it’s probably not time to jump on an upgrade yet. As with most of Apple’s upgrades, it’s usually a couple of generations down the road where it makes really makes sense.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal did his review of the 3G phone earlier this week. He also discussed the pricier AT&T monthly plan eliminating the upfront purchase cost savings, etc. –To me, that’s not a deal-breaker so much as a disappointment in terms of their marketing vision. It’s a little deceptive…not something Apple usually does. They now sound like the corner car dealer who focuses on selling you a monthly payment instead of discussing the total cost of purchase.

In Mossberg’s tests, he also found another problem: The 3G data capability takes a big toll on battery life. He did find that data download speeds are blazing now; up to five times as fast as before — and if you need to do a lot of that, it’s worth the upgrade by itself. But be prepared to watch your battery level fall much more quickly. And of course, this magnifies the big flaw with the iPhone now and before — the battery is sealed. You cannot just pop in a fully-charged spare.

By: Kirk

Kirk — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:53:06 +0000

Ditto!!!

I totally concur about the yahoo whoâ€™s ideal it was to recess the headphone jack!

More customization would be nice.

By: SteveH

SteveH — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:44:14 +0000

Interesting Tom! I was thinking of getting my first iPhone this December when my current contract with T-Mobile expires. Think I may still do so but as you rightly say, the contracts are tweaked o be much more expensive so in the long run the iPhone is no longer as cheap as Mr Jobs boasted about. My dream scenario would be that all Mobile providers could supply a contract and then I would not have switch from T-Mobile to O2 here in the UK. Apple could really dominate the market if they let all providers supply contracts. I guess they are unable to match production output with demand if that were the case?