My experience leading up to the iPhone 2.1 update was nothing short of horrendous. I think I had maybe a week or two as a honeymoon period and from there the wonder and awe quickly disintegrated into frustration and finally apathy. Before the iPhone would frequently crash and even get trapped in the black screen of death. Usually, the cause of failure was a typical application installation gone bad. It didn’t matter whether you installed via iTunes or wifi though wifi had a much higher failure rate. CJK input (converting characters into Japanese in my case) was a nightmare. The iPhone would freeze between input before finally showing conversion candidates. Then once in a while it would constantly crash until being reset. In the end, the iPhone became nothing more than a browser that was only marginally more useful than my jail-broken iPod touch. The worst part of the ordeal was the backup and restore process. Backups would take more than an hour on average and so would restores. In the end I tried to limit syncing to weekends, so I at least had time to reset everything should the occasion arise and there were plenty of occasions to do just that. Of course, during this whole time the iPhone was unusable as a phone.
With the 2.1 firmware update I can finally use the iPhone as intended. Japanese input is much snappier and I can even install apps via wifi without crashes or freezes, backups are much faster (though they could do more) and luckily I haven’t yet had the chance to test the restore process. I think Apple would have done better to delay the release of the iPhone here in Japan until the 2.1 update rather than tarnish their image. They certainly did a bad job releasing beta ware not only with the iPhone but leopard. I certainly hope they finally put priorities between solidifying current offerings and maybe create a stronger base to build upon for future releases so consumers don’t have to go through this heart break.
Most of my friends in Japan bought the 3G iPhone when it came out in Japan but I held back and have been happy that I have not switched.
I’ll start with the battery life. If a phone doesn’t hold a charge for a full day, (mine is a year old and holds its charge for most of a week) then it’s not much of a phone.
Then there’s Softbank’s network, which is the weakest of the 3 majors.
Then there’s all the OS issues.
Then there’s the AppStore policy issues (more important to developers but do affect users).
If this was your computer OS, would you be nearly as forgiving?
No, no, and no. I’ve said it before that Apple brought back the early Windows XP to the phone with the 2.0 firmware.
This whole debacle is both a testament to the iphone’s weakness and strength as it stands. Some parts suck but a lot can be remedied as the firmware gets upgraded. I don’t know about you but my opinion of Apple was really devastated ever since Leopard.
However, the fact is I use Windows XP most of the time due to work, and have not been tempted to switch back to Windows for even a single moment.
As for the phone, I’ve been terrified of the iphone’s fragility as a lifeline. I can’t imagine depending on this thing during a crisis. The phone before this was a Casio Gzone. Had it for 2 years. Still held a charge for most of the week. Waterproof and shockproof. If I was earning more money, I’d still hang on to it as a phone in times of need.
On the other hand, I’ve been organizing parties and promoting our group using the iphone and it is worth its weight in gold which is why I think this phone has a lot of potential in the enterprise market but only if Apple finally takes enterprise more seriously.