My two cents on the iPhone

[zagor]

Erm. Apple owns the licence on every last bit of code installed in the OS of the iPhone. So therefore, while you may own the metal and glass the iPhone is made of, you don't own the software. You are entitled to use that licence.

That said ... I agree about Apple being restrictive and I think other features should be allowed ... if they don't cut into profits ... ie: Firefox etc ... why can't that stuff be?

Unfortunately, for us, other companies left Apple without serious competition for the last couple of years. I hope Google with Android and Microsoft with Windows 7 mobile will increase the heat on Apple.

[OOOOOOOO]

Unfortunately, for us, other companies left Apple without serious competition for the last couple of years. I hope Google with Android and Microsoft with Windows 7 mobile will increase the heat on Apple.

Problem is ... iPhone came out and it was immediately slick and awesome. Sure it's gotten better but it was good from the get go.

Windows Mobile and Android both started (and WM is still) pretty clunky and crud.

lol

[Growled Member]

Erm. Apple owns the licence on every last bit of code installed in the OS of the iPhone. So therefore, while you may own the metal and glass the iPhone is made of, you don't own the software. You are entitled to use that licence.

That's right. It's just like Microsoft owning the license to Windows on your computer. You just own the physical box.

[OOOOOOOO]

That's right. It's just like Microsoft owning the license to Windows on your computer. You just own the physical box.

Exactly ... if you owned the software you could copy and send to your mates.

Now, of course, you can't copy the iphone's glass and metal shape ... as while you own that physical object, the design patent is held by Apple :) Messy but the best way to look at it is ... Apple own everyone and there's nothing you can do.

LOL!

Sucks.

[DeathsyctheHe11]

I don't get why's there even a debate. There's plenty of phones out there that you can choose from. Hate one phone, choose another. Apparently just because the phone don't fit your needs and wants, doesn't make it inferior. If companies made all the product to fit the exact needs of everyone, they'll be out of business. Apple did a great job cause they found a phone that fits a lot of people needs and wants. Companies are customerS driven, not customer.

[PhillAholic]

Really now? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=563294

Xda-dev pretty much has ported every app there is to other phones.

Phones that didn't have touchflo 2d/3d, now do. G1 can use the sense ui or the motoblur ui. Hero can use the motoblur ui.

Winmo 6.5 has been ported to pretty much every winmo phone. And when winmo 7 comes out, you can be sure it gets ported too.

Android is being ported to windows mobile phones as we speak.

edit: maybe port isn't the right word, but you get what I mean

Considering that is way more complicated then jailbreaking, that doesn't count as being available on the G1. With much less effort I could make the iphone look like the Hero. If you were able to download the theme from phone without doing any sort of scripting or command line, that would be legit themeing for the Android.

[Gary2MBz]

Xda-dev pretty much has ported every app there is to other phones.

Winmo 6.5 has been ported to pretty much every winmo phone. And when winmo 7 comes out, you can be sure it gets ported too.

Windows Mobile 7 REQUIRES a multitouch phone. So even though we have 6.5, the phone must be multitouch to work with 7. Plus the phones we have now might even be a little too weak to run the next version kinda like running Windows 7 on a P3. It is possible but too sloooowwww

[Hardcore Til I Die]

I agree fully. Apple think they know what people want, and that's that... there's no other choice.

Apple may well have a ton of customers, but it would not hurt anyone (or themselves) to offer more choice with their products: -

- a hardware keyboard iPhone.

- wallpapers/themes on the iPhone; they could tuck this away in the settings so as not to remove from the simplicity that everyone deems so important these days. This would also allow Apple to sell themes on the app store, more profit!

- app folders! I know people like things simple... having a folder for your games would surely be simpler than flicking through however many pages to find your game?

- customisable lock screen, so you can show calendar entries, weather, etc. Again, could tuck this away in the settings to keep simplicity.

These days a lot of people want their phone to be uniquely identifiable as their phone. Of course you can jailbreak the iPhone, but why go through the hassle of jailbreaking when other phones have these features out of the box?

When Android is adopted by more hardware vendors and we actually see some decent hardware choices, I expect it to do big things!

[Damian]

I agree fully. Apple think they know what people want, and that's that... there's no other choice.

They must know what people want.

Quarterly iPhone unit sales reaches up to 7.4 million and is still growing.

This is what i expect from a Personal Digital Assistant

- User friendly (no advanced stuff at all... it is just an Assistant)

- Checking my emails easily

- Browsing the web easily

- Weather app (which looks great)

- An easy to use calendar app

- Write notes

- Choices from lots of apps (85.000 apps)

- Some music on the go

The iPhone does this perfect for me and probably 21 million iPhone users worldwide.

And the Eyecandy looks great.

It does all of this for most users including me (95%)

And if you're missing out on some apps and tweaks... there is jailbreak (5% of iPhone users do this)

I think the iPhone is one of the best smartphones out there.

Just look at every involvement from other companies. (mainly apps)

[ahfunaki]

I like having a choice, and I don't like a company telling me "this is what you should use, and there's no need for a qwerty keyboard, etc etc"

So basically you wouldn't have an issue with the iPhone if they offered it in different form factors?

I really don't get the point of this post. And I haven't read anything but the original post so I'm probably repeating things that have been said, but oh well...

Apple is not forcing anything upon you. I have never used a phone that was as easy to use and did as many things ( and does them well ) than the iPhone. I have used my fair share of phones, and even own a phone currently that runs Android ( the HTC Dream or G1 if you will ), and my iPhone 3GS flat out smokes it. When it comes to usability, getting things done fast without any hitches I can't even compare the two phones.

My 3GS is jailbroken which allows me to tweak things to my liking software wise, and the phone itself build wise is much better than the G1. I would take the on screen keyboard of the iPhone over the physical keyboard of the G1 any day, hands down. Actually I would probably take it over any physical keyboard on a cell phone...

I've been a member of XDA Dev's for years and I've done a good amount of tweaking a whole slew of HTC phones running Windows Mobile to the G1 running Android and even with putting custom optimized ROMs on the phones, they still can't compete with how well the iPhone runs.

It's obviously all opinion based off of what you like and what you need, but I don't think there is any better phone than the iPhone.

[Gary2MBz]

I've been a member of XDA Dev's for years and I've done a good amount of tweaking a whole slew of HTC phones running Windows Mobile to the G1 running Android and even with putting custom optimized ROMs on the phones, they still can't compete with how well the iPhone runs.

Please do get the HTC Touch Diamond Android support as not too many ROMS are that good anymore. The last ROM I used that was perfect until the cook quit on it was DeepShining.

[greatscot]

I don't like the iPhone because, quite frankly, its a bit of a joke. Like Apple computers there is a distinct lack of software. The vast majority of Apps available from the Apple store are just apalling - toys - nothing for business. Sure theres lots of software for registering your cat with Facebook. But absolutely nothing to help me at work.

Moreover, the lack of even the most basic functionality (JAVA, Flash, etc).

Compare this with my new HTC HD2 and I'm laughing. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Flash, Java and what is probably the single best application for mobile phones ever, OneNote. It works with my company's Exchange server too and there are tens of thousands of apps downloadable. With nearly 3 times the screen resolution and twice the camera resolution as the iPhone. For half the price.

Apple should change their product names to Macintoy and toyPhone - for the rest of you.

FINALLY: If someone asks you 'A penny for your thoughts' and you put your two cents in does somebody make a cent? Is it Steve Jobs?