Well, you're obviously not a baseball fan, because the analogy doesn't fit. The Cubs actually do win games -at the time of your writing they were actually 7 games over .500 and half a game from first place. They have been pretty consistent winning games the last several years. Your analogy would have fit if it said "as often as the Cubs win CHAMPIONSHIPS"

Anyways, I have an iPhone but have never been happy with the cell-phone-locked-to-a-network thing. I think locking cell phones to a network, iPhone aside, is anti-consumer , anti-competitive and should be illegal. Apple and AT&T of course, have abused this government oversight more than the other companies, but they're all guilty of this mess.

@ Harry -- my ignorance of America's pastime is indeed a source of shame. Still: maybe I'm being reductive, but don't you need to win games to get into championships? I'm a hockey fan, and that's how things work on ice.

@gelbendorf -Finally a sane voice... Apple are acting like an oligarch.. and coupled with the good vice of AT&T... and they got the perfect shit-storm.
"Apple&T" is the only combination of service provider and device manufacturer that wouldn't unlock my wife's old 1st gen iPhone for an international trip- they allow us to travel only to some countries... guess what, the FCC doesn't allow them to reject servicing us if we jailbreak...
Apple has a great vision and a great ability to implement it, but they lack one thing.. true openness. Google is on the right way, actually they wrote and are constantly re-writing the way. A couple of versions ahead and we'll have a great platform for true social networking where voice is just an app.

I don't like AT&T either, but unfortunately they were first If android tries to duplicate the touch features, Apple would sue google. Also quit whining and Jailbreak already all the complaints about ATT and gv mobile can be fixed by jailbreaking!!!

I am an iPhone owner for the first time. It is clearly an amazing device, and I have already had my share of iPhone epiphanies, BUT, they are going to have to begin listening...and giving. Their culture of proprietary and holier-than-thou design only works to a point.

Organization on the iphone is a big issue. What about no Flash while surfing the web? What about no ability to attach documents to emails? What about the fact that I have a 16GB device that I can't use as a storage device (i.e. flash drive)? What about that I have to connect through iPhoto to get my images off the device? I took the extra measure of hopping ship to a Mac laptop from my PC days and these issues more than extend into their software. I use VMware for Word and Excel because the software is wayyyyyy better (faster, etc) on the PC side. The Mac based apps like Mail and iCal and Address Book are oversimplified and downright less user-friendly (believe it or not) for an advanced user. Perhaps I should have expected some of this but for the simple, user friendly , logical design changes...Will they happen? Or will the business model, and arrogant (or is it negligent) design mentality prevail over customers?

P.S. Their hardware is still amazing, and perhaps the best.

if only the companies selling the HTC Hero (pictured above) would bring it to market faster, i would switch in a minute.

Don't forget up and coming smart phones slated to be released over the holiday season. My personal favorite the LG BL40 "Chocolate". I foresee this phone truly being the "Razor of smart phones". Remember the fat clunky candy bar Nokia's everyone had in early 2000 with the million and one case's you could get... Then the Razor came and everything changed. I do miss playing snake in pixel. Sorry, not going to sell out to a device that is over priced to use and I can still enjoy the OS on the iPod touch thats half the size.

Great article. I love the Cubs reference, particularly "I'm not even a baseball fan and I know this analogy fits."

I'm a Verizon customer, but got an iPod Touch to play in the reindeer games. I can't imagine ever wanting to use an iPhone to make calls, but the Touch is a great toy and video demonstration device.

I am going to scrap the iPhone and kick AT&T to the curb...cound me as a androidite!

In the words of the great Charlton Heston "From my cold dead hands." Seriously though why would Apple care of you jumped ship right now? Obviously seeing as how you've purchased every generation of the iPhone they have ever realeased they've already made a great deal of money off of you. T-mobile may be cheaper but they are only running a 2G Network which just as a side note GASP roams off of AT&T's 2G Edge network. I think this is a case of the classic 90/10 rule. 90 percent of the population of iPhone owners are completely satisfied with there phone and the other 10 percent are like you. No matter what the product or service you will always have the vocal minority scream how horrible the product or service is.

All in all, I do not subscribe to the idea of being held "captive" for anything let alone a phone and certainly not ATT. Though I am an Apple fan (over that of Microsoft) I am not hip to the whore like relationship Apple and ATT have. Simply put, what they have to offer is far from what I need or care to feel like I have to have....the interenet is the same however you manage to reach it and frankly, I work at my computer and communicate with my phone. If I am out with freinds, I engage them directly and do not text to others; If I wanted to be with them I would be with them.

That's seems to be all youi see...a group of friends all sitting together for cocktails and most of them are on their phone texting to someone else.

Anyhow, yes the whole ATT - Apple thing, they are dicks.

Some of the points in this post are valid. No device on the market can touch the capabilities of a "jailbroken" iPhone. If you can name one that is better, I'll gladly check into it. The GV app that was rejected was made readily available through Cydia(Appstore's evil twin lol) almost instantly after Apple denied it. Organizing apps is a synch with "Categories". There are ways to manipulate this device that still amaze me. Jailbreaking is frowned upon by Apple or AT&T, but it's played a major role in sales. This site http://www.modmyi.com has over 450k users, thats not childs play. With that said my only options are to remain on AT&T or jump ship and have it unlocked on T-Mobile. I'm not giving up this phone. Both services suck,but the best services out there have the wort customer relations. You can't win an empty battle, so what's more important to you the phone or the service? If your choice is the latter of the two, how much you want for that 3GS? lol

Cubs PLAYOFF wins maybe?

This is more about the future: my decisions about who to compute with (because that is what it has become) and what Apple needs to do to stay ahead.

The relationship with AT&T is good for control of the customer experience, and that makes sense, but when it begins infringing on cost or other experience issues like app-availability or tethering availability, it becomes a business decision. Innovation is already occurring in this market (Palm, Google, etc), it is a matter of one to two years that Apple has to secure its position as the smart phone king, that simply means being open to change, and letting go of certain proprietary aspects (access to sandbox, etc.). Additionally, to hold on to all the converts resulting from the iPhone, they should be investing in and revisiting their native applications (Mail, iCal, etc).

Apple has been good about being focused on a specific segment but with an influx of new customers does it begin to make sense to integrate some functionality for the business user?

As a G1 owner, I think it's actually a little sad how iPhone - or more to the point, AT&T - are shooting themselves in the foot (feet?) with their recent decisions.

As for everything else, I've certainly thanked myself often for going the way of the Google Phone. But I think once we are able to move phones away from carriers and focus more on handsets as data servers, with calls running on VoiP services, we can move away from this fanboydome surrounding phones. After all, I just needed to make calls - not find a sense of belonging.

@Chris - more intuitiveness and less hating!

@Fast Company - Who the heck is this dude (Dannen)? I have a 17 year old that writes better.

@the rest of you (who seemingly think you bought a ticket to heaven when you bought the iPhone or thought you might get there if you did) - Have you forgotten that your list of complaints has shrank tremendously over the last 18 mos for a company who is only 2 years into creating phones?

I guess I am biased because, for what I do in a day, my iPhone works better than all the previous devices I had combined. And call me crazy, but I think I'd rather spend my hard earned money on things like a new deck or groceries rather than jump ship to a new phone and carrier because I can't have a Google voice app on my iPhone. You all sound like a bunch of whiny 12 year-olds!

Fortunately the good stuff in FastCompany is actually in the magazine. Which I have a subscription too. This RSS feed is getting deleted.

Actually I just decided to use a different RSS feed. One where there are real writers, writing real articles ;) And BTW...in the time it took me to write both of my comments to this post...about 75 new iPhones were sold worldwide.

Unfortunately for Snapper Cridge, he/she can't have an adult conversation. And it's too bad when a designer can't listen to customers. Thank God he/she is not receiving this since he is on a different RSS. Is the iPhone the most successful smartphone in the world? Yes. Is the iPhone a remarkably amazing device? Yes. Is there room for improvement? Yes.

Does it bother anyone else that they can't use their 16GB mini-super-computer as a flash drive? And for that reason can't email with attachments, or conduct other simple business procedures? Or that Flash is not an acceptable format for their mobile browser (Safari)?

And while this writing may not be Hemingway, it received over 1700 DIGGS at this post, making it #7 in last 24 hours (at this time of post). This new type of journalism is short and blogish meant to give tidbits throughout the day, almost personal insights. It stimulated my interest and got the point across.

@Snapper Cridge Just a head's up, it's "has shrunk." Run that by your 17 year old if you don't believe me.

@cina - I never said I wasn't going to respond to this article. However, beyond this article I am going to stick to writers that seem to base their information on fact rather than opinion. It's the READERS job to give an opinion on what he/she reads.

So for the recored, I (HE in this case) can have an "adult conversation". Please describe for me how calling people "dicks" would be considered "adult conversation". Then enlighten me on what exactly it was that I said that reduced me to childlike conversation??

@Ciao - He corrected me already, but thanx. And your point was by the way?

@Cina Meister - It obviously got my attention too, but I just have read better articles that are focused on the same points without sounding like Apple & AT&T got the author thrown in prison. I have mentioned this before that I have read articles by Chris Dannen and some were good. It just seems that his new mission in life is to show why Apple is falling apart at the seams when it's clearly not. Sorry if somehow YOU were offended in the process. Good day!

@Cina Meister - It obviously got my attention too, but I just have read better articles that are focused on the same points without sounding like Apple & AT&T got the author thrown in prison. I have mentioned this before that I have read articles by Chris Dannen and some were good. It just seems that his new mission in life is to show why Apple is falling apart at the seams when it's clearly not. Sorry if somehow YOU were offended in the process. Good day!

@Cina Meister - It obviously got my attention too, but I just have read better articles that are focused on the same points without sounding like Apple & AT&T got the author thrown in prison. I have mentioned this before that I have read articles by Chris Dannen and some were good. It just seems that his new mission in life is to show why Apple is falling apart at the seams when it's clearly not. Sorry if somehow YOU were offended in the process. Good day!

Good point. I don't like the dicks language either - poor usage. I didn't mean to imply childish, but this is the modern form for discussing the future of a device most of us actually love. Without some critical changes I really believe the future success is compromised.

But of course, that may be the space (high-end consumer) that Apple is most comfortable occupying.

@Cina - I agree! And while Apple seems to keep with their own timetable when it comes to getting things done, they seem to be paying attention. I have no doubt that as long as people continue to feed them with constructive ideas for improving...they will make those improvements.

However, this isn't the best way to get those messages across...Period! Bad mouthing a company and spreading half truths is never a way to get people on board. My point here being...rather than ditching your $100 to $500 device...why not tell the makers what your issue is. I don't know about most here, but I have a contract...have always had good service with AT&T, and run a small business. This little device contributes to that in a major way. NOTHING...(even the completely factual and truthful points) are enough to push me to make that change.

Fair enough, I will seek the means for communicating with the company. But help me out...if any items I remarked on are half truths, or better yet, there are actual solutions to my issues please let me know!!

I was speaking at the half truths of the article. I saw none where with what you wrote.

@Andrew...my issue has much less to do with Apple than it does with how some people "journalists", journalists, the TV media, etc. will walk you into a show, article, blog, etc. and have speak as if what they say is the truth.

'They're anti-competitive' - Apple and AT&T are not under investigation...PERIOD! An inquiry as to why the Google app was blocked is FAR from an investigation.

'They're targets' - The linked article in this paragraph clearly states Android was effected as well and the length someone would have to go through to launch such an attack would be highly unlikely (not like anything of the virus attacks that Microsoft has faced and has yet to completely fix)

'They're dicks' - Maybe someone can explain why someone would want a refund for an application that simply is no longer sold in the iTunes App Store?

'Apps are mayhem' - If any part of this were relevent, none of the iPhone's competition would be going out of their way to duplicate what Apple has done with App Store. My apps don't "tumble into disarray", they simply fall left or right of the app I am moving and if I have 11 screens of apps, I will simply use spotlight to find them. If they are important enough that I need to get to them by, as Sam Grobart stated in the linked article, "pull(ing) out my iPhone and flick(ing) to the app I need, I will simply place them on the first couple of pages (yes Sam it does sound a bit ridiculous).

'You can't find anything' - The practical person in my laughed at this, but I do get Dannen's point to a degree. There are over 65,000 apps available on the iPhone. However I (as well as every other iPhone user I know) looks for applications as they need or want them, then listen to the ratings and comments of those who have used them to make a decision on which app will work best for what they are wanting or needing to do with it.

'Android is beautiful' - 100% OPINION

'T-Mobile is cheaper' - Untrue...comparable plans even based on you link show AT&T plans at nearly every level...the same!

"Verizon has better customer service, and Sprint is faster" - again 100% opinion. I have had Verizon...their customer service made me switch and when I did it was to Sprint. I had Sprint for years and moved to AT&T just before I bought my iPhone. I have an iPhone and FACT - I haven't had experiences connecting calls. And while I have had calls drop in specific areas NOT ONE SINGLE CARRIER can get a signal in those spots either.

Sorry for the long rant, but I hope you get my point ;)

I think this: if the author of this article really believes what he's just written, why doesn't he short AAPL and tell us where he went short. Hell, just make it up (I suspect he has a great imagination) --pick some price point and declare, "From this point onward, I think Apple will decline in value because the glaring flaws in the iPhone that I've enumerated are too painful to be ignored by the market."

Is that unfair?

huurr, duuurr...... Has the author even used either of the suggested alternatives?

1.) Android doesn't support multi-touch, and therefore, it's UX sucks, hard.

2.) T-Mobile's service is _actually_ worse than ATT's (hard to believe, I know).

Ok, first things first. I begin my criticism of you with a simple piece of knowledge. I HAVE NEVER OWNED AN IPHONE. Primarily because ATT is renowned to be awful with pricing and customer service.

Next, if you knew anything at all about cell phones or cell reception or any associated technology or financing you'd feel like a complete ignoramus for your comment about moving to T-Mobile as they are well documented as having minuscule cell tower coverage by comparison to any other company including Sprint who while having little coverage distance wise at least as impressive 3g and 4g.

What's next, oh ya you're baseball ridiculousness. People need to stop thinking about analogies like this simply because they're unworkable. Reminder that while World Series Champions have competed in a contest only slightly different from that of Lord Stanley's Cup (whom I greatly respect) both are victories lasting a grand total of 1 game, namely the last at which point the season is over and they start from scratch again. Business is a life long game and being on top is a day to day struggle for every company and WinMo has been knee capped by the Iphone and while Android has enormous potential it'll be crippled so long as the hardware isn't powerful enough to even supply a full day's battery life under simple use.

By maintaining control over the hardware and software Apple limits complaints, which come to every company, to issues of availability and delay for purposes of legal issues and damage to the user experience rather than rushing to release "cool looking stuff" resulting in being called "useless" or "spawn of the devil" like WinMO has been by respected tech experts such as Wil Harris.

Bottom line? Use something, read about it, listen to experts before you shoot your mouth off for respect on a blog.

"T-Mobile is cheaper. A lot cheaper."

It is? Looking at those plans posted, to get what I am getting now I save $1.00. Well, kind of. I get unlimited text messages for that extra $1.00 as opposed to 1500.

The big thing that keeps me with the iPhone is the iPod portion of the phone. All other phones listed, IMO, cannot compare to the iPhone in terms of playing or managing music.

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