Why I Won't Buy an iPhone

Why I Won't Buy an iPhone
Apple has abandoned its founding ethos of creativity and innovation by hanging up on third-party software developers

by Arik Hesseldahl

I don't own an iPhone, and I don't think I ever will. That may come as a surprise to anyone acquainted with my long history of owning and liking Apple (AAPL) products.

It's not that I don't think it's an extraordinary device (BusinessWeek.com, 7/3/07). Having tried it, I think it represents a fundamental step forward in what a mobile phone can be. And it sure looks like it's going to be imitated six ways to Sunday.

But what I can't take is how Apple is keeping the iPhone from evolving in a manner consistent with its corporate heritage. Over the years I've owned many wireless devices, including a Treo (PALM), three or four BlackBerrys (RIMM), and tested my share of phones running Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile and the Symbian OS, majority owned by Nokia (NOK).

WEB APPS ONLY
In almost every case, I've had an important option I wouldn't get on the iPhone: installing third-party software. What's so big about that? Sometimes the package of software installed on the phone simply isn't very good. My BlackBerry, for instance, comes with an instant messaging program I found lacking, so I installed an excellent alternative called JiveTalk. On the BlackBerry, it's a dedicated application, installed directly on the device via a cellular download.

A version works on the iPhone, but only through the phone's Web browser—rather than the phone itself. Good luck using JiveTalk when its Web site is hammered by thousands of users at once. In fact, the only way to use an outside application of any kind on the iPhone is via the Web browser. If you're a software developer and want to create some software that runs after being installed directly on the iPhone itself, you're officially out of luck. Unofficially, you can only install your application after jumping through some technical hoops that Apple says run the risk of voiding your warranty, damaging the phone, and generally wreaking untold havoc.

IS THE IPHONE THAT FRAGILE?
Why all the sturm und drang? Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs will tell you opening the device could leave the network vulnerable. Carriers such as AT&T (T), Apple's U.S. iPhone provider, "don't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up."

Hogwash, I say. Like many BlackBerry users, I've installed and removed scores of applications from my BlackBerry over the years, and never once heard a peep from T-Mobile (DT) about bringing down its network. No one has yet been able to explain to me how even the most ill-designed software could conceivably do such harm to the wireless network.

And really, is the iPhone so delicate that one nasty application damages its software permanently? I thought the device runs Mac OS X. If you believe Apple's marketing, the operating system is rock solid, hard to break, easy as pie to use, and so on. One bad application can do all that damage? The iPhone itself isn't just a phone or an iPod. It's really a mobile computer. Apparently one so powerful that software developers are forbidden to do anything for it, short of cute little Web-based applications, yet so sensitive that it's easy to screw up. That's one way to inspire confidence in a product. Read more...

[Via BusinessWeek]

Why, oh why, are you screwing your own product, Apple? Just open up the damn thing and you can conquer the world.

Why all the sturm und drang? Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs will tell you opening the device could leave the network vulnerable. Carriers such as AT&T (T), Apple's U.S. iPhone provider, "don't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up."

how is the cellular network vulnerable if an application malfunctions? if this was the case half the worlds GSM networks would be down becoz of malfunctioning Symbian apps on Nokia phones

and aryayush dont u ever sleep.. posting at 4.30 in d morning

That is seriously lame of Apple and At&T to carry that kind of a attitude. An Application will take down there network, unlocking damage your phone!! Take a break man!

^^^ i agree

M

Wasn't it that the Mac users quite happy not to use third party softwares on their PC?

jab hum bol rahe the toh humme ... fanboy yeh woh patta nahi kya kya bola ... ab khud post kar rahe hain ... ki open karo ye karo .... :lol:

even b4 the bloody device released we hav beenm sayin this

but ...

alsiladka said:
That is seriously lame of Apple and At&T to carry that kind of a attitude. An Application will take down there network, unlocking damage your phone!! Take a break man!

El Jobso said "3rd party apps will break AT&T network", that means 3rd party apps will break AT&T network. Period. - Macboy & Mac Salesman

mehulved said:
Wasn't it that the Mac users quite happy not to use third party softwares on their PC?

No, it wasn't. I have a lot of quality third party software on my Mac. It is one of the best thing about Mac OS X - quality (notice the stress) third party applications.

Iphone is lame cell ..over hyped phone .I will go for PDA phone always

K

^^ iPhone is not a lame phone. It is an extremely capable phone with excellent hardware and software which is only limited by the Apple's philosophy of not giving what the customer needs/wants but give them what Apple wants. The day Apple decides to loosen their tight fist, iPhone will be one of the best gadgets in the world. Unfortunately i don't see it happening anytime soon. Its like making a good looking car with a powerful V10 engine and then providing only 2 speed gearbox with it.

krazyfrog said:
Its like making a good looking car with a powerful V10 engine and then providing only 2 speed gearbox with it.

Tht almost describes it perfectly !!!!!!!!!

krazyfrog said:
...extremely capable phone...

What's next - multiple utility broomstick?

most lay users are happy with the default functionality their phone gives them, be it the default apps on the iphone, or the default apps on a WM PDA phone

the 1% of the remaining will find one way or the other to do what they want as long as the hardware supports it

thanks to the efforts of the iphone dev team, i have tonnes of native 3rd party apps (most downloaded Over the air) on my iphone including an IM client, a file browser, bunch of command line tools and some games including a NES emulator..

having said that, I absolutely do not condone the idea of keeping the iphone a closed platform

it does make sense from Apple's perspective as they do not have to spend resources on providing support for phones that broke due to untested/unverified 3rd party apps
but then Nokia does it for their Symbian phones all the time

But those applications would have been a lot better had Apple officially supported them. There would have been tons more and you'd have a lot more variety.

Plus, you could have updated your iPhone immediately every time a new software upgrade came out and not lost any of the installed applications.

Seriously, I don't see any reason for not allowing third party applications that is actually beneficial for the customer.

lol everyone see this

*preview.tinyurl.com/3bmr9z

aryayush said:
But those applications would have been a lot better had Apple officially supported them. There would have been tons more and you'd have a lot more variety.

Plus, you could have updated your iPhone immediately every time a new software upgrade came out and not lost any of the installed applications.

Seriously, I don't see any reason for not allowing third party applications that is actually beneficial for the customer.

OMFG...arya u r saying this who opposed JAVA, MMS, Video recording & what not in iPhone just cos El Jobso said so....

I must be dreaming....u r now saying something me & imav have been saying since day 1 of iPhone demonstration

aryayush said:
But those applications would have been a lot better had Apple officially supported them.

If this happens then I'm sure Apple will charge for installing the apps.

Be that as it may. It will still be better than the situation we are in now.

Most Mac applications are paid. At least, most of the really good ones are (though there are exceptions like QuickSilver and Transmission). But you still get all of them for free (except, maybe, David Watanabe's). I'm sure it'll be the same with the iPhone.

Plus, I'm sure that once they open third party development officially, there will be a lot of free applications too.

And BTW, JAVA still sucks, MMS is still useless, I am still glad the iPhone does not do video recording and I still think that the decision not to have third party applications is a very stupid one - none of my opinions have changed. I still don't want JAVA (heck, I won't buy the phone if they decide to include JAVA) or MMS or video recording and I still want third party applications, like I always did.

infra_red_dude said:
If this happens then I'm sure Apple will charge for installing the apps.

of course.. they even charge for the ringtone.. even if you have purchased the same song through iTunes...

You know what - every single company in America does that. And they charge more than twice Apple for just a thirty second ringtone of their choosing.

Apple charges you half of that for the whole song and a thirty second ringtone of your choosing.

Apple is also a music retailer so the have to maintain a good relationship with the labels. I know that it sounds like a very rough deal in India, where everything is free. But in the USA, Apple sells the cheapest ringtones.

I'm not defending them. I hate it that you have to pay for ringtones and I'll certainly not pay them for it. But it is something that they can do little about. Universal and Sony BMG want to make money from the ringtones and Apple can do nothing to stop them doing so.

^^ @Arya wats ur problem with JAVA??? Java is the most suited for building portable apps that can work on many platforms..

Arya must have been on drugs when he started this thread.........

No, I wasn't. I hate the iPhone's not having official support for third party applications. Steve Jobs' lame arguments against them never convinced me. I've always bashed this decision - always hated it. I am frustrated and angry because I really want the phone and I also really want third party applications.

pathiks said:
^^ @Arya wats ur problem with JAVA??? Java is the most suited for building portable apps that can work on many platforms..

Oh, I have JAVA on my phone and I've never seen any decent JAVA application apart from Opera Mini (and maybe the Gmail one). Now, Opera Mini itself is heavily inspired by MobileSafari and the interface of the latter is still much better. JAVA applications have horrid interfaces and they are total pain to use. Having JAVA slows down the phone and even computers. Basically, it is impossible to make really great applications using JAVA and therefore, I see no reason for it to exist.

Cross-platform compatibility? I don't give a ****! Every Mac user knows that cross platform applications are the worst ones on Mac OS X. I have an iPhone and it has native applications. That's all I care about. Why do I give a damn about whether my application works on other phones or not! I don't care.

hey arya where did u get that iphone

aryayush said:
But you still get all of them for free

The only way to get paid Mac apps is piracy, r u supporting piracy now?

And BTW, JAVA still sucks, MMS is still useless, I am still glad the iPhone does not do video recording

You have absolutely no idea how to use a phone & why mobile phones are integrating all these features to make a converged device. No further comments.

opera mini is based on mobile safari

dude save urself the embarrassment and stop posting in this thread

aryayush said:
You know what - every single company in America does that. And they charge more than twice Apple for just a thirty second ringtone of their choosing.

See, selling ring tones is not the problem. But the ability to set your own music files, or that music which u purchased from iTunes & play in iPhone is not available. Thats the problem. In all the other Multimedia phones u can set any mp3 file as a ring tone, but in case of iPhone u have to "purchase" a song which u already own again...that is the problem

I know people who change there ringtone every 3 days. U think they will be happy to buy a new song even if they already own it, every 3 days?

Apple charges you half of that for the whole song and a thirty second ringtone of your choosing.

But doesn't provide us the ability to set our ringtone which we want. Any mp3 of our choice.

Universal and Sony BMG want to make money from the ringtones and Apple can do nothing to stop them doing so.

Yes they can, just follow Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola & give us the ability to set any mp3 as a ringtone.

aryayush said:
Oh, I have JAVA on my phone and I've never seen any decent JAVA application apart from Opera Mini (and maybe the Gmail one).

That & IM+, Morange, Talkonaut etc etc et

Now, Opera Mini itself is heavily inspired by MobileSafari

Wait, Opera used a time machine to come to 2007 & use the Safari browser in iPhone so that they can go back to 2004 & release Opera Mini...u really r on crack boy

..

The technology is compleately different, the method is compleately different. The data it requirs to see a webpage on Opera mini is 5% of that on iPhone lolz.....MobileSafari sux compared to Opera Mini cos opera mini does the same thing as mobile safari but at lower data download...

Having JAVA slows down the phone

HA HA HA HA HA HA

JAVA apps work & communicate directly with the CPU & RAM, & don't need an OS at all....thats why even firmware based phones run them at the same speed as Nokia N73 (although CPU speed matters). You have a C2D in your macbook, why r u worried about Speed when Apple makes there own virtual machine for java according to Mac OS X

it is impossible to make really great applications using JAVA and therefore, I see no reason for it to exist.

Don't ever say that in front of a JAVA developer like Anuj

lolz...

Cross-platform compatibility? I don't give a ****! Every Mac user knows that cross platform applications are the worst ones on Mac OS X. I have an iPhone and it has native applications. That's all I care about. Why do I give a damn about whether my application works on other phones or not! I don't care.

Lolz.....developer friends do I have to remind u all again of arya's stupidy & lack of knowledge about how computers work.

eggman said:
Arya must have been on drugs when he started this thread.........

aryayush said:
No, I wasn't.

How can i believe you after you wrote this:

aryayush said:
Having JAVA slows down the phone and even computers.

arya u shud definitely take my advise

^^^Lolz....JAVA Apps are usually slow on computers then native apps cos they run in using a JAVA Virtual Machine, however in case of firmware based phones they can interect directly with the Phone's hardware without the need of an OS.

In anycase, running a JAVA Application does not slows down the computer.....the apps is slow, in responce time, screen redraw etc but this can be solved with a fast CPU & more RAM.

@arya
I won't do a multi-quote reply here. But I've said this before and I'm saying it again: You don't haf even the slightest idea about Embedded Java Technology!

@gx
NO Java App can DIRECTLY interact with any hardware. Whether its on a PC or on Embedded Devices (like cellphones etc.), a Java app requires a Java Virtual Machine. In case of smaller embedded devices the JVM is many times called as KVM - Kilobyte Virtual Machine. KVM will run on 16bit+ uP and 128KB+ memory.

infra_red_dude said:
But I've said this before and I'm saying it again: You don't haf even the slightest idea about Embedded Java Technology!

I know. I've never refused that. The point is, I don't want to know. The end result is what matters to me and so far, I have never seen any decent JAVA application. (And gx_saurav saying that they are decent just strengthens my belief that they are crap. After all, this guy worships Windows!)

gx_saurav said:
See, selling ring tones is not the problem. But the ability to set your own music files, or that music which u purchased from iTunes & play in iPhone is not available. Thats the problem. In all the other Multimedia phones u can set any mp3 file as a ring tone, but in case of iPhone u have to "purchase" a song which u already own again...that is the problem

Yeah, I know. I myself am not a fan of the fact that you cannot make any MP3 file on your phone a ringtone. I hate it! But you have to take into consideration that Apple Inc. has to maintain a working relationship with the music execs and the day Apple allows you to have free ringtones, all the music labels will pull the plug on the iTunes Store. It sucks but that's just the way it is and it's not going to change any time soon.

gx_saurav said:
Yes they can, just follow Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola & give us the ability to set any mp3 as a ringtone.

None of those companies is the largest online retailer of music in twenty-two countries.

gx_saurav said:
Wait, Opera used a time machine to come to 2007 & use the Safari browser in iPhone so that they can go back to 2004 & release Opera Mini...u really r on crack boy ..

LOL! Who is talking about Opera Mini 1.0? I am talking about the latest beta. It is heavily inspired by MobileSafari. Even the animations are similar and Opera Software practically accepts that they copied the iPhone browser. They had that unfunny video a while back that touted that Opera Mini is almost exactly the same as MobileSafari while being free. Stop twisting statements and purposely misinterpreting them. You know just as well as I do that I was talking about the latest beta only.

gx_saurav said:
Don't ever say that in front of a JAVA developer like Anuj lolz...

It is my opinion and I am entitled to have any opinion I want and have the complete freedom to voice it on this forum as long as I am following the rules.

Anyway, I'm not very happy about doing these multi-quote replies anymore so keep saying whatever you want - it is just not going to change my opinion that JAVA plain ol' sucks. It is just a personal thing. Maybe Milind loves JAVA. That is not going to change my opinion. I may be wrong, of course but I am free to have any opinion I want.

But one thing I can say for certain is that there are extremely few good JAVA applications around (if any) and certainly none on Mac OS X.

@aryayush i am planing to buy a iphone , i hav heard that that iphone hav a prob with safari (not having enough ram to run safari)
bro is this true............

Uh... what! That's utter bullshit, man!

The iPhone is friggin' fast. Everything is butter smooth. Go to any Apple Authorised Reseller and try out the iPod touch and you'll know.

You don't live in India?

aryayush said:
I know. I've never refused that. The point is, I don't want to know. The end result is what matters to me and so far, I have never seen any decent JAVA application.

Cos I don't think u have ever used one

But you have to take into consideration that Apple Inc. has to maintain a working relationship with the music execs and the day Apple allows you to have free ringtones, all the music labels will pull the plug on the iTunes Store.

All other phone manufacturers give this option. Do I see universal suing Sony Ericsson? Talk something which makes sense. If all other manufacturers can give it, then there is no reason Apple can't give it.

LOL! Who is talking about Opera Mini 1.0? I am talking about the latest beta. It is heavily inspired by MobileSafari. Even the animations are similar and Opera Software practically accepts that they copied the iPhone browser.

Thats it...no more requirment for arya to post his stupidity.

there are extremely few good JAVA applications around (if any) and certainly none on Mac OS X.

Thats the beauty of JAVA. If there is a good JAVA app on any platform other then Mac, then it is also there for Mac OS X cos JAVA runs anywhere

But who wants the leftover crap of other OSes! Mac users are used to and always expect the best **** available! Sorry!

^^

For the phones, i feel Yahoo! Go 2 deserves a mention, although i hate it for taking away Yahoo! Go 1 from me, but on the whole, it is not bad. It works very fast on 6300, but very slow on N73.

Other good JAVA apps would be mig33, Opera Mini 4 beta 2, Cricketcast...

But ya, JAVA apps dont match the Native OS apps, whether it be S60, UIQ, WM

aryayush said:
But who wants the leftover crap of other OSes! Mac users are used to and always expect the best **** available! Sorry!

Thats sad. dude!!

This statement reeks of macboyism..

btw for me the best java apps wd be opera mini, ucweb, gmail and cricketcast..

I'm going to start a "Why must I b1tch and scream over something I'm not going to buy" thread.

Press 1 to retry, 2 to abort, and 3 to fail.

pathiks said:
This statement reeks of macboyism..

I know. It is difficult to use a Mac and not turn into a Mac fanatic. I'm sorry I couldn't resist the immense charm. And like goobimama recently noted, it is fun being a Mac fanatic so I have no intention of changing any time soon.

pathiks said:
Thats sad. dude!!
This statement reeks of macboyism..

btw for me the best java apps wd be opera mini, ucweb, gmail and cricketcast..

You like the Gmail app? It sucks yaar, wont show up the full text mails, cannot send attachments, cannot label the mails.
I seriously hope google ports their gmail app to S60 like they did to their maps app.