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The iPhone Is Ruining My Life!
Despite rave reviews and millions sold, Apple's iPhone has become notorious for falling short in one key area -- the phone. Why all those dropped calls could be costing us a lot more than you think.
Posted 7/ 6 10 at 7:30 PM | Business Trends, Technology, Business Travel, International Business, Online Business, Business Products & Services, Computer Hardware, Consumer Products & Services, IT Services, Media, Software, Telecommunications
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Matthew Armendariz is tethered to his iPhone. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Web designer uses Apple's wildly popular smartphone for personal and business calls, Web research and e-mail. So when he lost a design project because his iPhone never rang, he was understandably irked. Calls about the project repeatedly went to voicemail, leading the prospective client to believe that Armendariz was too busy or, worse, unreliable. And it wasn't the first time AT&T dropped the ball -- er, call."I've dropped countless calls while talking to clients," says Armendariz, who admits -- for better or worse -- he's an Apple junkie and has no plans to abandon his trusty, if sometimes unreliable, iPhone.
[Editor's note: Following the publication of this story, Armendariz reached out to AOL Small Business and explained that he "finally had it and dropped AT&T/iPhone," spending nearly $1,000 to switch to a Verizon Android phone.]
Then there's Lindsey Carnett, CEO of Marketing Maven Public Relations in Los Angeles. She regularly uses her iPhone to call national television producers, new business prospects and retail clients. One recent call with GNC was dropped -- at a very inopportune time.
Poor reception and dropped calls have become a way of life for many AT&T Wireless customers since the iPhone was first introduced in 2007, and the new iPhone 4 -- which, by Apple's own admission, may drop calls if users hold the phone a certain way -- has sparked a litany of complaints online. AT&T and Apple were dealt another public relations blow recently, after revealing that a software glitch has misrepresented the phone's actual signal strength for years.
Sure, it's annoying when calls get dropped, and it's a reality for almost every cell phone and carrier at some point. But with millions of power users who live their digital lives on Apple's superphone, and in part because it does so many other things so well, poor call quality has become a well-known Achilles' Heel of the iPhone -- especially frustrating for entrepreneurs and other business types who use it as their mobile offices.
Joseph DePalma, a managing partner at Joseph.Stephen PR in Philadelphia, says AT&T's dropped calls are a frequent frustration and make it difficult to develop "a new client relationship based on reliability."
Steve Johnson, an expert in technology product management at Pragmatic Marketing, tries not to get worked up when his calls fail. "The client dropped the call, we all sighed heavily, he called me back, we concluded our business," he says. This sequence has become somewhat of a tradition for Johnson and his colleagues, who have experienced many dropped calls over the years.
Instead of shouting expletives at AT&T, "Chris" in Oregon (he asked to remain anonymous) is making light of the reception issues. On the heels of the viral success of @BPGlobalPR -- a fake Twitter feed purporting to be from BP's public relations department -- the longtime iPhone user set off to create a snarky AT&T analog while he was on hold to pre-order an iPhone 4.
"While AT&T's servers were crashing left and right, I thought, 'Huh, I've got a few minutes. Now would be a good time to "join" AT&T's PR team.' @ATT_Wireless_PR went live that afternoon in an attempt to give humorous voice to the frustrations that iPhone, and AT&T users in general, have felt for years," Chris says.
But the mystery Twitterer insists he's not trying to take down the company.
"The point is that in this brave new age of social media, even giant multinational telecoms like AT&T can be given a successful nipple-tweaking by one guy with a computer and too much free time," he says. "Will this change the way AT&T does business? Almost certainly not. Will a few people have a laugh at AT&T's expense? They already have."
But Chris' gripes aren't limited to reception issues, nor are those of other AT&T users. Tate Chalk, founder of athletic footwear maker Nfinity and a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors, has jumbled contacts on his shiny new iPhone 4. For example, when his mom calls, it shows up as a different name and number. Chalk thinks it might be a "linking" problem that is mixing up his e-mail and telephone contacts. He hasn't called AT&T to discuss the problem or find out how widespread it is, because he fears he'll be put on hold for 30 minutes -- and he has a business to run.
In fact, based on his own experience, Chalk says it's probably not a good decision for people to invest in AT&T's iPhone 4 for business use, because first-generation models tend to have bugs, whether with reception, a wonky camera or a yellow bar on the LCD screen. "For the true mavens, get it," he says. "For everyone else, wait it out."
On Friday, Apple fessed up to the signal-bar glitch.
"Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong," Apple said in a statement. How wrong? For many users, the iPhone adds two more signal bars than it should.
The statement went on to say that Apple is adopting an AT&T formula for calculating signal bars to accurately display signal strength in a given area -- which, of course, doesn't exactly solve the problem of poor reception, just how that poor reception is displayed. Apple will also issue a free software update in the coming weeks to distribute the correct formula to the millions of iPhone 4s that have been purchased since its release on June 24. Owners of iPhone 3GS and 3G will also get the update, since the erroneous formula is present in those versions as well.
Spokespeople for AT&T declined to comment on the issue and deferred to Apple representatives, who did not respond to questions via phone or e-mail. But the companies appear to be working together to address the reception issue.
And that's good news for many businesses that have made -- or want to make -- the switch from BlackBerry to iPhone. AT&T says 40 percent of its sales this year have been to business customers, suggesting that iPhones are encroaching on corporate territory once owned by Research In Motion's BlackBerry.
Since its debut in 2007, the iPhone typically has not been supported in corporate environments. IT departments had been reluctant to fix the expensive device, which was seen more as a toy than a business tool and didn't offer much privacy protection. BlackBerries, although not as consumer-friendly, have always been durable, reliable and efficient -- if not a little less fun and glamorous. But in January, Apple announced that 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies were testing or deploying iPhones. And the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is improving its privacy, devising new business-friendly apps, and offers more than just e-mail. Apple will likely welcome even more fans -- business and otherwise -- once it teams up with Verizon, a long-anticipated partnership expected to debut in 2011.
In the meantime, most iPhone users appear to be standing by their devices, albeit sometimes begrudgingly. "That's what we do," Johnson says. "We sigh and accept it and move on."
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Comments (Page 1 of 5)
REMEMBER ;CELL PHONE NUMBERS GO PUBLIC THIS MONTH REMINDER.....all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will stat to receive calls. You Will Be Charged For These Calls To prevent this ,call the following number from your cell phone.....888-382-1222 National Do Not Call
sprint already has somthing like it.
False! Check snopes.com This old rumor is still false - cell phone numbers are still illegal for telemarketers who use auto dialers to call - and most of them do. Relax cell phone users - there is no surge of telemarketing calls coming your way!
Amen to that. I had Verizon and so did my roommate, we moved to a new place and my phone didn't work anyplace in the home, his did. Mine, I had to stand out on the front porch darn near to the street to get any reception at all and even then my calls got dropped. Again, HIS on Verizon also, worked perfectly everywhere in the house. I went to a Verizon store and they told me my only choice was to buy a new phone - 150 bucks later I was home and STILL no service. I said screw this and called them and told them to shove the contract up their as**** - and I went to Sprint. I now get service in every inch of my new home. Verizon keeps calling me and sending me letters about the 450 bill I owe them (150 for the phone and 300 for the contract) to which I laugh and told them yeah good luck with that! Not going to happen! They broke the contract by not providing me with good service.
I LOVE Sprint!!!
it's not the iphone drops the calls, it's AT&T.
I've using my iphones unlocked (1st gen and now the 3gs) with T-mobile for over 3 years.
I never had 1 single call dropped.
The iphone itself is really nice, it's just Apple was stupid enough to sign contract with AT&T and had their phone locked to AT&T network.
Screw cell phones.
What this person needs to do is jailbreak his iphone and unlock it for tmobile :D
Att may have 3g coverage but tmobile hardly drops a call but when it does its hardly ever
Roger is incorrect. This 'story' has been circulating since at least 2005. See: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp -
however, at ANY time, you may register at: http://www.ftc.gov/donotcall - but as you will see when you read it, there is NO deadline, and also LITTLE likelihood that you would get any telemarketing calls anyway due to other laws already in place.
I live in NC and I got my IPhone 4 the first day they came available. I did have a few problems for the first 3 days until I was able to get a cover on it. Since that day I've not had any trouble with the phone at all, no droped calls, nothing going straight to voicemail and my reception has been very good! I've really enjoyed my phone and would recommend it to anyone wanting a fun and informative phone!
Dumb SMARTphone!!!
I have an Iphone and my wife as an AT&T Razor cell Phone she looses reception at the same time as I do or sometimes more. So how do you blame the IPhone? I believe it's the At&t cell towers or cell towers in general. When others are in the same area with sprint Phones etc. Theirs won't work when mine does. or visa versa.
Thanks for the tip. The headphones with the mic would come handy then.
I have noticed that I do not get any reception when I carry it between my butt cheeks.
The touch type phones all have problems. From the sensivity of the screen causing lost calls and information to the nonexistent battery life. Keep it plugged in while using it so you don’t run out of power. But then again that kind of cancels out the mobile aspect of the phone.
These are only a few of the problems. The dial screen is so small it must have been designed for a child to use. The location of the volume and speaker buttons on the side of the phone are in the exact location that you normally hold your phone when using it as a phone so you end up hitting at least one of the buttons and losing the call..
Worst of all is the voice controls. The learning ability is so bad I usually end up pulling over to dial the number myself.
The manual for the Samsung Moment is a joke with more missing information that usable information.
All in all these phones have a long way to go, maybe next time designers from the us government will not be involved.
I got my Iphone for security when I travel between my home and a lake home we own which is approx 50 miles away. From the time I leave home 'til I arrive at the lake house I have "NO SERVICE". It is totally unreliable! My husband has just a regular cellphone and has no problems with service in this same area. We are both with A T&T.
4g=unreliable piece of crap. I've had numerous lost business calls that are both embarrassing and costly. When is Apple going to wake up and dump AT&T? I picked up my phone last Thursday before the long weekend. I quickly discovered the unreliability in signal along with the unbelievable fact that the microphone doesn't work. I can use speakerphone but not as a regular phone. I'm on my way to Best Buy to get my money back. They have lost my trust. Once you lose trust, you can never regain it.
Well first you need to ger your head out of there and stand up straight so the local tower can pick up the signal.
I had Verizon and the service and quality was HORRIBLE. Dropped them for Sprint when I thought it couldn't get any worse - and was proven wrong. Then switched to AT&T and have had much, MUCH better service and reception. Not everyone lives in the cities and on flat land, so there is a lot to take into account when saying once service is better than the others.
You are absolutly correct. I have had verizon and Sprint they both suck I have had AT&T for 10 years now, I lived in Germany and been to 12 other countrys and my AT&T phone works anywhere I go. the same can not be said for Verizon or Sprint. Hell even the desert of AZ was no match for my AT&T Iphone great signal there too, however 2 of my buddies with Verizon had no signal and were constantly using my phone and promptly switched to AT&T upon return to New York. AT&T ALL THE WAY
I have AT&T like this articles customers and thought I heard it all but when three days later I got a dozen missed messages that AT&T decided to dump on my phone at one time! I missed so many business calls I spent the day apologizing for not returning their calls. AT&T is trying to put me out of business! Step it up or I go to Verizon!