What's Going on with the Apple 3G iPhone?

Slow connections, 3G turning to 2.5G, and dropped calls. Is the Apple 3G phone fatally flawed? I've been using the 3G iPhone since it came out on July 11. And yes I get dropped calls and poor signal strength in many locations, just the same as others report.

And while the iPhone may be partly responsible I think some of the concerns are misplaced. I tried using AT&T's 3G Blackjack. It's an excellent phone that's made by Samsung and in its 3rd revision, compared to the 3G iPhone that's been out just six weeks. It's mature, proven and uses Qualcomm chips. I've been doing a side-by-side comparison, using each to make and receive calls. From what I can tell it's about 10-15% better than the Apple for reception and call quality.

That tells me that the 3G iPhone is far from seriously flawed. Yes, Apple could have used Qualcomm's more proven chips and would likely have had better performance than the Infineon chip they chose. (Probably selected for its lower price and because Apple likes suppliers it can dominate.)

I think a major culprit is AT&T's 3G network. It's far from perfect; it's not everywhere, mostly in major metropolitan areas, and it's not as good as the 3G networks from Verizon and Sprint. Expectations and hype got ahead of reality.

You rarely know all of the problems you'll encounter until you put a new product in the hands of thousands, particularly something so complex and significant. Knowing it is the first step to fixing it.

Comments

[tuzigoot]

Not definitive, but current theory points to immature 3g network in US (AT&T est. 3G in 2004) because same phones are doing fine in Europe (3G net est. 2001)

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/25/study_points_to_network_weakness_as_source_of_iphone_3g_woes.html

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/global-iphone-3.html

http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=444&a=440573

[MikeJo]

Its at&t me thinks. I was with Singular for about 3 years before at&t took over and I noticed that my service is not as good. forcing people to use at&t is more the problem than the iphone. Apple should allow its customers to use whatever 3G service THEY like.

[wedgie]

I'm a long time Apple user. Twenty years now. I have LOTS of Apple hardware and software. Its how I earn my living.

But I don't own an iPhone because I don't want to be told who my service provider should be.

So, I'll just wait.

**

[JBS]

Too many gew-gaws.

I want a telephone so I can make and receive phone calls. Don't need text, don't need a camera, don't need to browse the internet, don't need e-mail.

I just need to make an occasional phone call .. see if the family's ok, call a plumber, make a doctor's appointment, call work when I'm stuck in traffic so I can tell them I'm going to be late, call the police when I get rear-ended by some idiot playing with his iPhone and not paying attention to where he's going.

[MrTessier]

I guess I live in a major enough area where I do not have the problems others have had. I love the 3G phone. The only issue I have had is the battery life. That's more the fault of all the cool little games I've put on there and play all the time then anything else. The ap store is so far superior to anything else offered, I'll put up with any other shortcomings that the phone develops.

Sorry to hear the news that some areas are having problems though!

[Sundialsvc4]

The "fatal flaw" of the iPhone is ... that it is LOCKED TO the AT&T network.

As a result, I found that I could not get adequate telephone reception in some areas that I frequent, and I literally had to buy another phone ... one that will switch to whatever carrier's network is strongest at the time. Even AT&T has such plans! Programmers have shown that the iPhone is capable of doing this but that this capability has been disabled -- thus locking the phone.

"Smart phones" that are more-than-equal to iPhone therefore have a free competitiv­e-advantag­e one mile wide, handed to them courtesy of Apple.

The solution is simple: don't lock the phone to a single network. Sell ==telephones== (that are also high powered computers), but make damm-sure that they're the best ==telephones== that you can make them be.