iPhone Whiners Unite - July 2, 2007 -

Ashwin | Perspective, Technology

Did you hear? The Apple iPhone went on this sale this past Friday, June 29th. All of the tech Blogs endlessly gave a minute-by-minute update on long lines formed by the early adopters across the US.

The weekend elapsed and now we have a plethora of those early adopters complaining about everything from the ring tones to the unsuccessful phone activation. I just find this sort of bouncing attitude very amusing. Before buying their beloved iPhones, these people were certain that Apple could do no wrong. Forget the fact that you’re being asked to pay $499 or $599 for the 4GB and 8GB variety of the iPhone AND a2-year contract with AT&T (the exclusive carrier) that you have to sign to even use this sucker.

There aren’t any numbers that I’ve seen tracking the number of people who bought the iPhone for their own use as opposed to trying to make a quick buck selling it to other fans who were not willing to sit in line for days. But, I can imagine that a large number of iPhones were sold and now imagine that many people all sitting at home on the weekend trying to activate their respective phones. Is it really that much of a surprise that the AT&T servers were overwhelmed? But I guess to some, it truly is surprising as they’re whining about not being able to use their shiny new iPhone.

As much as the features of the iPhone are intriguing, AT&T’s prior history of lackluster service and Cingular’s spotty network hasn’t convinced me to switch over from my very reliable Verizon service. I might someday consider the iPhone, when Verizon starts to offer it and the price as dropped to about $49.99 for the 8GB variety and I can get it as a free upgrade.

Early adopters be damned. You guys can figure out all the quirks and issues, I’ll wait for everything to be ironed out and the 2nd generation phones to hit the market before I even think about getting the iPhone.

Cheers