5 Reasons Not to Upgrade to the New iPhone 3G 55 comments
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I've had my new 3G Apple (AAPL) iPhone for about a month now and I thought I'd take a few minutes to write some of my thoughts and reflections on the experience for people who might be considering upgrading to the new 3G iPhone. First a little background though.
I've been critical of the new iPhone ever since first learning the details about it. I felt that after existing iPhone users had shelled out $600 for original iPhones less than a year ago, that Apple should have done more for existing early adopters via an upgrade path. I'm not saying that the company had any obligation to do more, but just that I thought it would have been the right thing to do.
The easiest thing that Apple could have done was simply allow existing iPhone users to migrate to the new phone on the same plan rather than requiring them to adopt a new more expensive plan from AT&T (T). I do recognize that Apple made a gesture in the form of a $100 store credit for early adopters, but at least in my case after going through the work of securing my credit online, the Emeryville Apple store refused to honor it, turning the positive gesture into more of an insult than anything.
Originally I was not planning on upgrading to the new phone. But when my old phone was dropped and broken this provided the entry to try out the new iPhone 3G. My experience with the new phone so far is that it is very similar to old phone. But for people with a working first generation iPhone I do not feel that upgrading is worth it after a month of hands on experience and here are my reasons why.
1. AT&T's 3G network sucks. One of the main reasons to upgrade to the new iPhone is for the alleged faster speeds associated with AT&T's 3G network vs. the first generation iPhone's Edge network. Unfortunately, when you can get a 3G connection (and surprisingly in a major city like San Francisco this is probably less that 50% of the time) the page loading speed is barely noticeable over the old AT&T Edge network. I just loaded my Flickr Recent Activity on my iPhone on AT&T's 3G Network and it took over 90 seconds to load. This is simply unacceptable. By contrast, my Verizon (VZ) EVDO card on my MacBook can load the same page in less than 5 seconds.
2. The battery life on the new iPhone sucks. On my old iPhone I could always get at least one day's use out of the iPhone on a full charge. Several times when I've been using my new iPhone the phone has died before I've had a chance to recharge it again at night. Using the web seems to drain the battery the most, but then again using the web seems to be one of the main selling points of the new iPhone. It sucks when I need to call my wife to pick me up from the BART station at the end of the day and have to boot up my Mac, EVDO and skype to make a telephone call because my iPhone is dead.
3. Wifi is becoming more ubiquitous and will continue to become more ubiquitous over the next two years. Even if you felt that you were going to get better speeds from 3G and have a better experience than I have with wifi becoming more ubiquitous over the course of the next few years, you may find yourself with less and less of a need for 3G anyways.
Tuesday's top story on Techmeme was that Delta Airlines (DAL) was going to begin offering wifi on all of their flights. On Monday I signed up for the new AT&T Uverse fiber internet connection at home. Along with that service I was told that I'd have free access to all AT&T wifi hotspots. On the AC Transit buses that run to the East Bay where I live they already broadcast wifi. BART is currently running an experimental wifi program and already has a beta wifi program available where users can use free BART wifi at some stations.
Wifi is only going to get more available and when using wifi the new iPhone really has no advantage in terms of internet speeds over the old iPhone.
4. When you upgrade from your old iPhone to a new 3G version you no longer get any free SMS messages. The plan with the original iPhone offered you 200 free SMS messages per month. With the new iPhone you have to buy a seperate SMS plan. These new plans run $5 per month to $20 per month.
5. $10 more per month for the new iPhone's data plan is a rip off. Given that the 3G network is inaccessible at least 50% of the time with AT&T in a major city like San Francisco, the $10 more per month to pay for your new iPhone is a ripoff. People like to point out that the new iPhone is a lot cheaper than the old one. $199, but when you do the math over time it will actually cost you much more. Because you are going to be required to keep AT&T as your service provider with the new phone for at least two more years, you are committing (between the extra data plan charges and a $5 per month SMS charge) to pay a minimum of $360 more for your phone service over the next two years. Because there is a chance that you might keep the phone longer than two years you could end up paying even more -- about $540 more for three years. It would be one thing if the new iPhone was that much better, but unfortunately it is not.
So there you have it. My advice? Only upgrade if you break your old phone like I did. Otherwise stick with your first generation iPhone. It's almost every bit as good as the new one and a heck of a lot cheaper. One positive note for the new iPhone -- the headphones do tangle a lot less than the old ones.
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This article has 55 comments:
It works really fast for me. The web page download speeds are worth the price increase alone. My time is worth SOMETHING and why should I wait with the original 2G iPhone. In addition, independent tests have shown that the 3G download speeds are FASTER than other 3G mobile phone manufacturers.
RE: "The battery life on the new iPhone sucks."
Steve Jobs told us this over ONE YEAR AGO. Yet, he was crucified for not putting 3G on the first iPhone. Again, independent tests have shown that the Apple 3G iPhone battery has the LONGEST BATTERY LIFE of 3G mobile phones.
RE: "Wifi is becoming more ubiquitous and will continue to become more ubiquitous over the next two years"
I don't have two more years to wait. You just complained (in #1 and in #5) that 3G networks aren't always available. How can you wait two years for WiFi when you can't wait for the 2008 rollout of AT&T 3G?
RE: "When you upgrade from your old iPhone to a new 3G version you no longer get any free SMS messages"
You, finally, said something that is correct.
RE: "$10 more per month for the new iPhone's data plan is a rip off."
I would like to get much faster service for free or for the price of slow service, but the 3G iPhone speeds are NOTICEABLY faster. I am much more productive and get my answers faster. However, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. Buy another 2G iPhone on eBay and downgrade your service plan.
Oh, developing nations have $10 mobile phones for pennies a minute of service time. Have you considered moving to one of these countries?
www.fool.com/investing...
Personally, I think every writer for Seeking Alpha is shorting AAPL, along with Kramer and Dvorak!!
Worse still, the final three of your wheezes are matters that you had plenty of opportunity to assess BEFORE your signed a service plan. Don't you research stuff before you commit to contracts?
Someone does suck but it isn't Apple and it may not even be AT&T. I think we all know who it really is, now don't we Thomas?
Regards,
%$#@!
I live in an area were there is NO 3G network. So a bunch of my friends are all excited for getting their new improved iPhones but I don't think they truly understand that their paying extra for a service they can't use. I think it is a scam because the local At&t stores are not fully disclosing the limitations of the cell phone plans they are selling.
I bought a mac book air in February and then they dropped the price by $500 last month...whine, whine, whine, apple and all other technology should just stand still for a year or two or until people decide they've "got their money's worth" on a product, so when something new comes out they don't have to scream like a spoiled child "what's in it for meeeeeeeee?" meeee meeee meeeee meeeee meeee. I should be rewarded a an "early adopter" I paid more than him, wahhhhh wahhhh wahhhh.
Also, looking back the last year all your posts have been NEGATIVE on Apple - fair n balanced - just another iShort.
HH
I have been using 3G touch screen smart phone since 2003 from Motorola, the second touch screen phone was first version Apple 2.5G unlock model.
The latest is the iPhone 3G touch screen which just works great in all area. I never want to go back to half screen push button models. The clean flat large screen display clear and sharp data and images.
NO. The early adopters ALREADY have the option for a low-cost plan: stick with the early iPhone. If they want the iPhone 3G with the 3G plan, they should pay for the 3G plan.
Which isn't to say that a cheaper 3G plan wouldn't be nice - but whatever the price, it should be the same for everyone! Otherwise, you have Apple and AT&T trying to maintain two separate prices and two separate customer lists, for the same service. I'm glad these companies aren't wasting energy on something boneheaded like that.
I realize that I may have more access to power than some, but I’m sure many people have more ability to charge their iPhone than they realize.
1: AT&T's network works fine for me, and I live in a small city of barely 70 thousand people. I ALWAYS have at least 4 bars of 3G everywhere in town, indoors and out. When I do hit the road, I'm covered throughout almost the entire I-5 corridor. The few places where 3G is week, my iphone switches to edge very quickly. I know that AT&T's coverage isn't perfect, but your complaint doesn't apply if you live in a well-covered area like me. As for data speeds on 3G, I hardly notice any difference in speed between 3G and Wi-fi
2: I'm sick and tired of hearing about battery life. I charge my iphone every night. My old phone (on which I never used data or GPS or listened to music) also had to be charged every night.
3:Wi-fi may be more common, but it isn't everywhere, and I want to be able to access the internet (at speeds that I can tolerate) anytime throughout my day. With the iphone 3G, I can.
4 and 5: AT&T plans offer UNLIMITED data. I'm sorry, but that is a good deal whichever way you look at it. Most international plans have a data limit.
If iphone 3G doesn't suit your needs, well and good, but in an article entitled "5 Reasons Not to Upgrade to the New iphone 3G," you should really take into account the fact that not everyone else will share your user experience and/or (unreasonable) requirements in what a phone should do. Someone with little knowledge of the iphone could come across your article and make a choice against the iphone 3g even though many of your complaints may not apply to them.
when you sell the old iphone online and get the new much better iphone, please take a small amount of time to learn how to use it. there are many adjustements you can make to save battery life!
1. Sell your 3g iphone on Ebay
2. Use the proceeds to buy yourself a blackberry or whatever and move to a service like Verizon or whoever and,
3. Go bother THOSE people with your whines.
Also, it's nice that the Apple Store didn't honor your $100 credit, but everyone else seems to have gotten to use theirs. Did they recognize that yours was fake? Also, if you had been really smart, you'd have used an AMEX Gold card or other credit card with price protection. I did, and got $100 back from AMEX too. So, I paid $300 for my iPhone.
1. AT&T's 3G coverage varies by location, just like other carriers. I travel almost every week for my job, and I've found good coverage in a number of major metro areas, such as NYC, Newark NJ, Chicago, SF Bay Area, and Phoenix. I did find that if you head out into less densely populated areas, the coverage isn't as good. In Santa Cruz, CA, there is no 3G coverage. Not really surprising. I've found the same thing with Sprint and Verizon's EVDO cards on my MacBook Pro. They have holes in their coverage, too. To say AT&T's coverage "sucks" is in my opinion, is too broad a statement. Perhaps that was your experience, but I've found it to work pretty well all over the U.S.
2. Battery life on the 3G isn't bad at all, unless you leave WiFi on all the time, use Push for everything, attend lots of hour-plus concalls, and spend lots of time playing games on it. I get a full day out of it while I'm on the go, constantly checking email (but not using push), web surfing, being on quite a few <15 minute phone calls, at least one hour-long concall, taking notes in the Notes app, and using the Maps/GPS feature. I charge my iPhone 3G every night, just like I did my Treo 650, Sony Ericsson P910a, and Nokia E62 smart phones. I never bought extra batteries for those phones, even though I could get them, because you can only charge them in the phone, which I just don't have time for. It just makes things too complicated, especially as a business traveller with a very busy schedule.
FYI, Apple put a page up on their web site explaining how to get better battery life from the phone.
3. WiFi is getting more ubiquitous, but it won't always be free, won't always have coverage by your favorite pay-for-use WiFi provider, and still will have spotty, limited coverage and interference problems. That, coupled with the fact that open WiFi hotspots offer no data protection, makes it less than an ideal solution, unless you do everything over a VPN. I've found that in some locations, AT&T 3G performance was better than the congested WiFi hotspot I was on.
4. Yes, it is too bad that they decided to make text messaging an add-on, but I put my family on a plan that also provides unlimited text messaging for my whole family, so this isn't a big deal for me. Probably not a big deal for some others either.
5. $10 more a month for 3G brings the plan into line with what AT&T users of other 3G smart phones are paying, like those using the Samsung Blackjack. Just because you haven't had good results with 3G in San Francisco, doesn't mean it's a bad deal for people living down the peninsula in Palo Alto, San Jose, or in other parts of the country, like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, NYC, and so on.
As always, your mileage may vary.
"Poor guys in USA. What you really need there is a solid 3 G network. It is hard to understand for none USA citizen that a High Tech country like USA has still such a poor network. So, beside the battery point, the other 4 points have nothing to do with Apple 3G iPhone."
It's easier to deploy and maintain a cell network in a tiny European country than it is in a relatively large country, like the U.S. The population is more widely distributed geographically in the U.S. Far larger networks, more spread out, far more expensive and complicated to maintain. Given that, it's not that hard to understand why it takes longer for U.S. cellular companies to upgrade.
Also, why do you require so many gadgets just to notify your wife that she needs to pick you up? Simplify. Who are you trying to impress? Nobody cares!
I live in Japan and the 3G coverage for Softbank is excellent nationwide. On the undergound subway platforms, undergound shopping plazas,hills, valleys,etc.. Rural locations with a population of 500.,etc. The bottom line is the ability for a great mobile phone coverage/network is there and working in many countries outside America.
In Japan, people expect/demand quietly excellent service and will not put up with the BS, that Americans do with At&T wireless. I have been useing a 3G Nokia N-series mobile here for a year(on Softbank) and a half. The coverage is so good that I have no need for a fixed line phone. In Japan, incoming mobile calls are free.
1) AT&T networks sucks. Duh. If this were truly a reason to not to "upgrade" to the 3G, then why buy an iPhone in the States at all? Bottom line, you knew that AT&T network sucks before your upgrade.
2) Battery life sucks. This fact was widely reported in the press before the 3G iPhone went on sale. If an issue, why did you upgrade?
3) Wi-Fi will be ubiquitous. No, not really. Wi-Fi has limited range & will not be deployed beyond the current inventory of hot spots. You might be confusing Wi-Fi with WiMAX, but that's another story & no solution to your hope that 3G will become less important going forward. Bottom line, it won't.
4) No free SMS messages. Again, Tom, you knew this before deciding to upgrade. AT&T & AAPL are in business to make money, you know, generate revenue for investors. There's no free lunch. I'm sure the terms of the offer were made clear before you made the decision to accept them.
5) $10 for the data plan is a ripoff. No it's not. I pay $30/mo to Verizon for my data plan. Before getting a BlackBerry, I was paying $25/mo for only 10MB of data for my Treo. Sorry, don't think $10/mo more for 3G data is a ripoff.
Bottom line, I hate to say, but am in agreement with prior post, your article really makes you out to be a fool (i.e. idiot). Better luck next time. Caveat emptor, buddy.
I think my big issue with the iPhone 3g is the battery life, but like it has been said already that isn't an apple problem, but just the limits of our current battery technology.
So that's why I have already pre-ordered my mophie juice pack 3g so if im going to be away from an outlet (home, computer, car) i can keep on rock'n and surf'n
Mophie Info: whenwillapple.com/sayw.../
"...the [3G] page loading speed is barely noticeable over the old AT&T Edge network," but then compares it to a laptop with a wireless card. "You know, Subway sandwiches aren't as good as Quizno's - for example, this BMT isn't nearly as good as the filet I had at the Palm last night."
"It sucks when I need to... boot up my Mac, EVDO and skype to make a telephone call because my iPhone is dead." Yep, that sucks. And battery life is a problem for me too. So what did I do? I adapted, as people do. I turn off 3G, Wifi and Bluetooth when I'm not using them. And I bought a bunch of $5 charger packs and have one at work, one at home, one in each car, and plug in often. Far from ideal (add this to the list of devices for which I'd gladly trade additional girth and weight for twice the battery), but not a deal-breaker.
SMS: Couldn't care less. Disabled the service on the new phone.
"$10 more per month for the new iPhone's data plan is a rip off..." and in-line with every other 3G data plan out there.
"but when you do the math over time it will actually cost you much more... you are committing (between the extra data plan charges and a $5 per month SMS charge) to pay a minimum of $360 more for your phone service over the next two years." Make that $240, since the SMS charge is an option. Which makes the price quite comparable to the previous version for the new customer.
"...there is a chance that you might keep the phone longer than two years you could end up paying even more -- about $540 more for three years." What makes you think you'll be able to continue your $20 data plan once your iPhone1 contract is over? AT&T could raise that rate at any time.
2. Turn off the 3G and it's fine. From what you said you got it as an iPhone 1.0 replacement and the 3G network is slow, so why bother having it on. You got a cheaper replacement, it has a good GPS and a non-proprietary headphone jack. Still a better deal.
3. Wi-fi is a crippled and archaic technology that has it's uses in very limited circumstances, and is probably great on Sony PSP's and the like but will never have cellular type coverage because the technology just isn't designed for it. Try planning cells with only three usable channels in a 24 story high rise and see how far you get. Oh, and nobody understands how to configure their PCs or handhelds for it either. Cell phones work right out of the box, Wi-fi doesn't.
4 & 5 - You've obviously never seen a Blackberry bill. Even with all the options an iPhone is cheaper.
The iPhone has some problems - no cut & paste, limited Enterprise manageability, a couple of limitations in the Exchange integration (which, incidentally, are MS limitations not iPhone's) - but since the day 2.0 came out my Blackberry has stayed firmly off, and the upside's outweigh the downsides.
Oh, and by the way - I'm a dyed-in-the wool Microsoft/Intel guy, not an Apple user.
whenwillapple.com/sayw.../