Sean Walther's Blog

iPhone 4: Signal Frustrations

I don’t have an iPhone 4 yet.

That says a lot for me.  For the past 3 years, I have lined up at Apple stores as soon as I could to buy the product.  Most of the time I was there the morning of the launch before the new toy launched.

I am the target demographic.  At least for launch, I am.  Every year I shell out about $400 for a new iPhone.  I renew my AT&T contract annually (for 2 years), and will purchase tons of apps (I had 8 screens before folders).  I am an early adopter, and have seen the iPhone sold for fractions of the initial price only months after launch.

I still don’t have an iPhone 4

What’s the big reason this year?  Well there are a few reasons:

• It really is expensive to buy a new iPhone every year, and it’s taking longer to rationalize the irrational purchase.
• What if the iPhone actually ends up on Verizon?  I don’t want to pay an additional $375 to leave AT&T (when my monthly contract is already $190 a month)
• Signal issues — my current iPhone 3GS requires that I turn off 3G service in order to use it during the day (and not drop a call).  I shouldn’t have to do that
• More signal issues — after hearing about signal issues, I am happy I have not jumped on the bandwagon yet.  If every time I touched that corner of the phone I spend the whole day on and off of — it disconnected, I would be VERY unhappy.
• Apps need to change — the biggest upgrades of the new iOS 4 require apps to change more than the phone
• Where’s my 4G?  If download speeds were faster, I’d have jumped on — but upload speeds are just faster, and even that is proving tough.
• Micro SIM – Yes, this is a big issue for me.  I love the new Micro SIM, but it means I can’t just pop the SIM card and put it in an old iPhone.  I’d be losing all my old phones that I test apps and websites out on (yes, they all behave different, and I prefer it to an emulator sometimes)
• Facetime? – It’s cool, but only on WiFi, and the other user has to be an iPhone 4 user

That’s where I am.  I won’t be able to hold out much longer, but I am waiting to see how the whole antenna problem plays out.  I don’t want a new iPhone to have to mail it in for a recall in a few weeks.  Yes Apple, we know, other phones have the issue too.  It’s not entirely a software problem, and the “duct tape” fix ruins the cool new design (would we be carrying these iPhones around if they were ugly?).

Tags: 3gs, 4g, antenna, antenna problems, Apple, apple stores, apps, AT&T, iOS, iOS 4, iOS4, iPhone, iPhone 4, launch, micro sim, Recall, Verizon

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