Only a few days ago, the iPhone 3G entered a bunch of new countries, and this was a very good opportunity for a new wave of iPhone 3G problems to arise. Anyway, it's still to early to talk about those new problems that could appear, so I think we should take a look back at those problems we already know about, especially since we already know what's causing some of them. As for the new problems, I think we'll have two big ones: user manuals with poor translations leading users into dead ends, as well as users moving to the iPhone from a completely different phone and, sometimes, frustrated by the change.
Since we heard about various iPhone 3G problems over and over again, I think today the time has come to do more than just talk about their source, so here's the detailed list of the most frequent problems encountered by iPhone 3G owners, including those caused by the design of the phone, as well as most popular user-related ones...
1. The price of the iPhone 3G can go really high in some countries, and if you combine lower income than US citizens and more expensive iPhones, you surely can get the picture. Also, in countries where the iPhone is expected to sell in smaller quantities, the local carriers are offering pretty expensive service plans, but that depends...
2. The battery is a problem for everyone - you can't replace it, you have to charge the iPhone on a daily basis, but at least it doesn't blow up...yet!
3. The camera in the iPhone 3G is far beyond the ones used in cheaper mobile phones, remaining at 2MP, while other smartphones are already passing by the 8MP barrier!
4. No MMS - I never used MMS, but some people are surely using it, I have no doubt about that. Anyway, since you have a fully featured email client on your iPhone...why send MMS messages? Considering the Internet capabilities of the iPhone, not being able to send MMS messages is no big deal, but this becomes a serious problem when you try to view such messages you received!
5. No 32GB option, and no memory slot - some people may simply need more than 16GB of storage, so what about them?
6. Poor reception - some consider this issue to be related to the quality of the signal provided by the carrier, but according to Richard Windsor, analyst with Nomura Securities, "these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier." Well, at least "almost certain" is a bit different from "absolutely sure," so let's hope this is not a chip-related problem.
7. The plastic back - do I have to say more about it?
8. No cut and paste? Well, this is still missing from the features list, despite the fact users have been asking for it since the early days of the first iPhone generation. While various third parties claim to have solutions, Apple still didn't come with anything to solve this.
At last, I should get back to the two new problems I mentioned in the beginning - poor translations for the user manuals and iPhone owners not really ready for it are two sources of new iPhone 3G problems, but this remains to be seen. If you have anything to add, please do! I am sure I missed something, so feel free to share with the rest of us your problems, or - even better - your iPhone 3G's strong points!
Anton, on August 26, 2008
Oh oh oh! It looks sheit too.