iPhone 3G – will I or won’t I?
So the iPhone 3G is here. As I said in a previous post, I really want one. I wanted the original iPhone, and now I want the 3G.
I’ve also said to friends that I’m at that age where I have to be convinced that the product is right and the time is right. As you may know I’m a huge Apple fan and until the iPhone no other smartphone had really attracted me. Having the latest/smartest gadget doesn’t do it for me, but that’s a personal thing. I need to see real utility and ways in which my life will be made easier, even if the product design is dreamy.
I decided not to pre-order the 3G at the beginning of July. Why? Well, I’ve never been an “early adopter,” preferring to follow on in the second wave. Also, there was a lot of discussion on the O2 forum about the inadequacy of the data cap (1GB per month) and the forum moderator had agreed to raise the issue with O2 “management” to see if it could be raised. I felt that if there was a big demand for the handset at the pre-order stage it would undermine our argument for raising the cap.
[I'd like to say that, with hindsight, I now believe that there was never any chance of the data cap being raised, or of any of the other requests on the forum leading to a more generous tariff. Looking back at the launch of the 2G iPhone and what happened over the next few months it is clear that O2 Ireland feel there is enough demand at the existing prices, so the scalping continues. Compare this with O2 UK - chalk and cheese. Maybe O2 Ireland will prove me wrong - that would be nice - but I won't hold my breath. It's a shame that the Irish consumer has simply capitulated. We should take a leaf out of the Canadians' book.]
A short time after pre-orders “sold out” it became clear that this “system” was based more on the concept of “a wing and a prayer” rather than careful planning. So it proved to be, with launch day bringing many stories of pre-orders being unfulfilled, and some very unhappy customers to boot.
As if to add insult to injury, we then had the “activation debacle” – nothing to do with O2, purely Apple’s problem. I have no wish to defend O2 but I think a number of users have been rather unfair, saying O2 should have insisted that Apple had an adequate system in place. Let’s be frank, O2 have as much sway over Apple as I do over George Bush.
I am not proud of it but I must admit to considerable schadenfreude. I’m glad that I’m not one to rush into these things.
So will I get an iPhone 3G (once they are back in stock)? To recap what I said about the 2G model:
- memory: I’d prefer to have 32GB (my iTunes collection – all legal – currently runs to over 17GB with a couple of short videos). But 16GB is still the maximum. How long will it be until the memory is increased? I’d say minimum 6 months, possibly a year. of course I could load just a subset of my music; 3 or 4GB is still a lot of music. Applications from the App Store seem to be quite slim so a couple of GB for them should be plenty. Contacts and calendars can’t take up that much room, surely? And I’m unlikely to want to store my emails on the phone. OK, 16GB is probably enough.
- 3G: tick
- O2 tariffs: unchanged. This was my main complaint last time round, and I still think they are very mean. I also suspect they won’t change in the foreseeable future.
- Software: now that 2.0 and the SDK are here, and the App Store, this shouldn’t be a problem.
I know there are still a few holes in the spec but to be honest I don’t think many, if any, will trouble me too much. MMS I can do without and a 2MP camera is adequate. Many of the issues are software related, which will be resolved in due course.
GPS is a bonus, and it may even be useful occasionally. It is kind of crippled by the small antenna, so true turn-by-turn navigation is off the menu, and this is a great shame. Half a GPS is just a toy really. Perhaps TomTom or Garmin will produce a plug-in antenna for it?
Anyway, back to my decision. Memory size and tariffs are unchanged, but we have 3G and the SDK. Is it enough? I’m betting that the next hardware iteration is a year away and, as I often say, if you keep waiting for the “perfect” product you will never buy anything.
So it’s a yes from me. I will buy a 3G iPhone, next week if I can. I’m not into queuing and I’m more or less an hour from the nearest store, so I’m not going to burst a blood-vessel getting it, but get it I will.
Thanks for listening!
