YES!!!
For those of you who have followed my attempts these past several weeks to secure an iPhone4, the latest time-sucking device from the good people at Apple, I am pleased to report that finally, finally, I have gotten my hands on one.
And, now the sort of bad news:
Sorry, my little Apple nuts, the hype proved far more impressive than the actual product.
Let me explain and backtrack a bit.
In my previous posts here, I talked about how Apple manipulates its customers. In the case of the iPhone4, there was the ordeal of booking a "reservation" for the phone online, only to be met with hours of delay and website breakdowns (for both Apple and its partner in crime, AT&Too Bad its not Verizon).
But those "lucky" enough to secure the much coveted reservation had yet another challenge to get past: The actual picking up of the unit from an Apple store (unless, of course, you had it delivered to your home) which turned out to be the real show and the whole point of Apple's manipulation.
On the Big Day, I showed up at the Apple store at the Grove only to be met by a line that seemingly extended half way to Bolivia. I was told there would be a five hour wait! Plus maybe another hour once in the store to complete the transaction.
I opted out and left without my prize.
Of course, Apple wanted the big, long lines--not to mention the "news" that, by the end of the first day of sales, the entire, nationwide supply had run out! Nothing like people literally begging for your product.
A day or two later, when I walked into another Apple store in L.A., I was told I could, once again, reserve a phone online--but, this time, there would be no website crashes and, more important, no long lines when I went to pick up the iPhone4 following an email message that my ship had come in, so to speak.
Why couldn't they do this staggered approach in the first place? You can figure that one out on your own.
Anyway, in less time than I was told it would take, the email popped into my in box the other morning informing me that my brand new, 16GB iPhone4 was ready for me to pick up at the Grove--but that the reservation was only good for 24 hours.
Have you ever seen a company pretending harder not to want to sell its products than Apple?
The process of switching from my iPhone3GS to the iPhone4 was not exactly a smooth one.
To make what should have been a short story much longer (don't worry, I'll keep it brief here)--my "old" iPhone (its first birthday was days away!), I was told, somehow exported a glitch to my new iPhone4 making one of its functions unusable. We needed to start from scratch and wipe the slate (screen?) clean.
We did.
Two more trips down to the friendly Apple store later, my iPhone4 now functions.
By now, most of your have heard about the reception problem the iPhone4 has. It tends to lose its signal strength bars when held the wrong way. At least, that is what Apple first claimed. Late last week, right before we all took off for the July 4th holiday weekend, Apple admitted that the formula it had long used to measure signal strength was totally wrong... it showed a better signal in many cases than actually existed.
A promised software fix will soon let us see just how badly iPhone and AT&T deliver on the most basic function of a smartphone--to be a phone.
As for the phone itself, so far, I honestly can't tell you that its battery life is much improved. I know there are lots of people who swear that it has. But lots of people swear they have seen the image of Christ magically appear on a window somewhere in the Baltics, too.
My iPhone4 still doesn't make calls in pretty much the same places my old iPhone3GS didn't.
Yes, the phone is faster for surfing the web and using apps, and that is good. But good enough to make customers jump through all those hoops just to get one? I doubt it.
Now, before some of you Apple cult members start writing nasty emails about how I just don't get Apple, let me warn you that you would be barking up the wrong Apple tree. I have long used Apple products and do think they make computers and smartphones that are, in general, light years ahead of what others are producing.
My beef with Apple is all the manipulating the company does to convince everyone that its products are perfect and can do no wrong.
They are not and they do.
Would I change my iPhone4 for some other smartphone? Don't be silly. Of course not. But I'd change the way Apple treats its loyal customers in a heartbeat.
OK, my little Apple nuts... I await your lashing emails. There may even be an app for that?
Charles Feldman is a journalist and media consultant and co-author of the book, "No Time To Think-The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle." He has covered police and politics in Los Angeles since 1995 and is a regulat contributor of investigative reporting to KNX1070 Newsradio.