Stephen a Phones Review Reader says a lot about the iPhone, he said that he Returned it today, but almost kept it as an “iPDA”. Stephen has sent us in quite a long comment showing his views about the Apple iPhone of which we know will be of interest for those who own an Apple iPhone or for those considering buying one. Please read what Stephen has to say and please do comment on what he has to say.

STEPHEN SAYS —
Returned it today, but almost kept it as an “iPDA”. I like the mail app and the YouTube widget the best and decided that at $648 including tax, it was too expensive and too frustrating to carry it around with my T-Mobile clamshell phone that has free unlimited Wi-Fi calls and 1000 anytime minutes and unlimited night/weekend minutes, EXCELLENT customer service and EXCELLENT call quality. When I activated my iPhone, iTunes was unable to port my phone number, so it gave me a new phone number. this was really to my benefit as it turns out because I decided to cancel the AT&T service after several phone calls transported my “phone of the future” back in time 5 years ago when I was an AT&T customer with cell phone call quality that is so inferior to T-Mobile call quality.

It didn’t bother me when I didn’t know what I was missing. But after T-Mobile for a year—it was like going back to dial-up. I thought there is no way I am porting my number back to AT&T (who originally gave me the number.) Though, the two week trial period gave me more time to be critical. The iPhone is way too locked down. Very frustrating, and it reminds of the old Apple of yore when they sold their superior hardware so long as you are willing to put all your computing lifestyle needs in the hands of Steve Jobs. Each service provider out there is the best for the right person. AT&T happens to be the worst option for my needs. The iPhone would have KILLED (in a good way) if had had been singularly (no pun intended) by Apple, Inc. I don’t care if it had cost even more and only had visual voicemail with AT&T—but it’s just really unfortunate, this “in bed” relationship with AT&T. I own everything Apple…but to be honest, I’ve never made an Apple purchase I didn’t tell myself; this company puts a collar on my neck. A pretty collar, a collar “that just works”—but it’s a collar. And I hate it not just for the point of this—but also the lack of functionality. Apple’s image is all cutesy, but their way of business is short-handily and monopolizing shrewd, undemocratic and the free market has spanked them right back every time.

Choice with Apple in the marketplace still comes down to choices that open up other choices or Apple, which makes all the possibilities finite. In my opinion, the iPhone is not special in anything it does, but rather it is very very special with the quality at what it does, which is actually a lot less than my $50 clamshell wi-fi Nokia phone which is plastic and when I drop it, it bounces whereas the iphone, nearly double in weight just thuds on the floor—I dropped it once during the two weeks and my money flashed before my eyes–and it was fine…no damage at all but it reminded me that if its first drop paralyzes me like that—then I can’t afford it. If dropping the slippery iPhone gives you nothing more than a laugh–like my Nokia….then you have a better budget for it. Also, for $13.44, I bought an iSync plug-in for my Nokia phone that synced beautifully with my Nokia including all numbers addresses birthdays and notes and automatically creates a voice tag (that sounds exactly like the classic Mac OS voice—and with one button , I can say any name in my address book—and the recognition is superb.

It took one-click of iSync for all this, which is why I own Apple products! Now while you might not think you’d use voice tags for your calls—the difference between me wearing a Bluetooth device and making a call on my new Nokia 6086 to a rarely dialled phone number in my phonebook of 500 contacts to doing the same thing with an iPhone while driving a stick-shift completely makes me realize I have a phone of the future more so with the Nokia 6086….the iPhone is much stronger as an iPod/mail/internet device and really not so much as a phone. And then the AT&T call quality issue….I couldn’t do it anymore. And again, the overall cost with service…it made me feel like I would have to go back to the days of “I don’t have any minutes left…can I call you after 9 o’clock?” when I’m in Los Angeles and my friends are in NYC when it’s midnight there when it’s 9pm here.

I will still miss it though. Buy it if you will have no regrets. I knew for myself buying it, I was going to live for two years with some suffering. Apple is good at siphoning as much money as they can from their customers without losing the loyalty of our wallets…but they’ve lost the loyalty of my heart…and that’s what has kept them afloat during all their hardships throughout the last 30 years…the love. The Apple store people looked at me the way alcoholics in a bar look at their old buddy, the recovering alcoholic when I returned it. It made me want to apologize and offer an empty remark like “don’t worry the iPhone can still make you happy–I just don’t want to be happy.” There is an element to Apple’s marketing that their products will make you happy, maybe even get you laid…but it’s obvious that only the biggest techno nerds are as discerning about their “break-through internet device” as me and other Apple regulars. People who hate computers and don’t think twice about them but use them when they have to are always PC users and Nokia owners. The iPhone was a bit masturbatory. If you love YouTube and web browsing and can’t live without it–also if you hate printing out Mapquest directions (the Google maps widget is good, though still major accuracy issues and little human to human communication–iPhone is for you. If you are talking a lot on the phone to many different people often—other phones out there are far more suited. End of diatribe. Thanks for raising the bar on quality Apple, but shame on you for letting your bedtime relationship with AT&T shape your long-term goals for the company and forcing me to choose a device over service—which I will not do. When it comes to a phone—the service comes first.

Do you have anything you wish to get of your chest about the Apple iPhone? Do you agree with Stephens views or do you have your own views? Get those comments in below. Thanks.

We here at Phones Review wish to say a big thank you to Stephen for taking his time writing this comment on the iPhone, so come on everyone hats of to Stephen.