Why I did not buy an iPhone

Iphone

Recently, I was making up my mind to change my smartphone for a touch one with accelerometer and so on. The question was: which one to buy? iPhone? I said why not after all it has been quite well-reviewed when it was launched. To say, that I also find Apple's products nice. I'm not at all an anti-apple guy or whatever; I already got other Apple products at my place.
I started doing some research on the cost-effectiveness of iPhone (a normal one, not jailbroken). I, always, do this in advance for all products I'm paying for.


1. Cost - too high compared to other touch phones out there. For the price of an iPhone, for instance, I could buy 2 Nokia touch phones along with some extra accessories. Ok, I agree the touch feeling and user experience is better on an iPhone than a 5800 XPM, for example, but then again.. twice the price ? It's more like paying for the brand.

2. Battery - this one is the best. I don't know what came in my mind, I thought why not youtube "change battery iphone". I got a video of a guy showing how to replace the battery of an iPhone. Frankly speaking, I never imagined that changing a phone battery could be so complicated (just for information, I've got an electrical background). I mean wait, isn't it just a phone! Replacing a CMOS battery on a motherboard is much more easier.
I'm not even talking about the battery life of an iPhone. I don't remember to charge my phone everyday and with iPhone by the of the day a guy reported that the phone was dead (without listening to music or videos or browsing).

3. Applications - I find it kinda limited on this aspect. Third-party applications can not be installed (for whatever stability reasons). I pretty much expect to install other applications and be more flexible.

4. Camera - I use a lot of my phone camera since I do not carry my digital camera with me every where but my phone, literally, yes. 2 MP camera, no flash, no filming, I think I don't have to elaborate on that one.

5. No MMS. Even the cheapest phone on the market supports this functionality. So, basically, you can not share your pictures (taken without flash) with your friends.

6. No copy/paste. This is a functionality I use a lot especially when typing sms/mails.

7. Memory - it's not upgradable. No memory card slot.

For a phone that should have been 5 years ahead of other phones, I think it's simply missed!

To conclude, I found it (iPhone) not worth the price. I, then, opted for a Nokia 5800 XPM, which is great by the way.

Filed under  //  Mobile  
Posted

SIM card got virus !

Wednesday morning (07/10/09), I wake up and no (network) signal on my mobile. I restarted the smart phone, nothing improved. I swap my SIM card on another mobile phone, again nothing.

I thought it might be an Orange networking problem. So I checked another SIM card within my house and this one was OK.

I decided to call the customer care service on the 8900 and the guy could not help me at all. I was asked to check the nearest Orange CSC for more info. When I got there, to my suprise, the technician (he did not look like one though) simply answered to me that the SIM card has got a virus and nothing can be done with this SIM card! It needs an "upgrade" (don't know what he meant by upgrade since I got no reply when I asked him the meaning of this technical word of his)

The guy told me that my number will be reallocated on a new SIM card. I was starting to feel happy about the thought that I would be able to use my SIM once again, until the minute he uttered the word "PAY" to me. I was like stumbled. He asked me to pay MRU100 for the reallocation/upgrade or whatever. I was hallucinated that an Orange's SIM is not working (some hardware problem stuff that I'm not at all concerned with directly) and I find myself paying the bill for its "upgrade".

The guy told me in uncomplicated words that I got to pay for it no matter what. I paid and got my SIM. The SIM has now (09/10/09) been activated after more than 36 hours. I lost all my SMS' during the "offline" period. Don't they have any backup/queuing system on their servers ? Fortunately, my account balance was left unchanged with the amount I got it credited.

Tout simplement incroyable... vivre l'île maurice moderne!

Filed under  //  Mobile  
Posted