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Survey Says Most iPhone Users Love AT&T
Hugh Pickens writes "In a report sure to raise eyebrows, CNN Money claims that despite a very vocal group of detractors, the vast majority of iPhone users love AT&T. A survey released this week by Yankee Group reports that 73% of iPhone owners scored their satisfaction with the carrier as an 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale. The results seem surprising, given the pounding AT&T has taken in the media and on the blogosphere about its service-related issues with the iPhone and AT&T's recent iPad-related security glitch. For its part, AT&T says its network really isn't as bad as many people think. 'There's a gap between what people hear about us and what their experience is with us. We think that gap is beginning to close,' says Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. 'It doesn't mean we're perfect; we still have work to do. But that's no surprise to us, because we have a great network.'" Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
Actually, I think it's just ignorance and lack of technical knowledge from the users. Apple and its users tend to run around telling how great their products are and there are no faults in anything. They most likely think it must be the same thing with every device.
Another great example of this ignorance (and misinformation spread by Apple) is that Mac OSX is virus-free and will stay so, while in fact there have been several recent instances of malware on OSX. The funny thing is that because Apple spreads these lies and users blindly trust them, they also are ignorant and can't see it. It's the classic lalalalala.
Ignorance is what is happening here too.
"77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
Translation: 77% of Iphone customers want something better. 80% of Android customers are satisfied with their purchase.
OMG, that is alarming! Someone call fox news!
Posted from my iPad.
In related news, the iPhone4 has no antenna problems.
Obligatory
Who did they ask? People inside of Apple's campus.. You've got to be kidding me.
but where are these Android users going to go? I highly fucking doubt it's to the iPhone, since People seem to never want to break their plans or contract with an existing devil-service.
Mac/Apple lovers are generally loyal to the bitter end, like devoted followers of most products and can look past most faults. For someone that wants an iPhone, there is nothing else that will produce an iPhone but the real thing, and service level be damned. Besides that, the rumor mill abounds that AT&T's exclusivity is almost over.
Android users come from a more diverse population who are probably not loyal to any one thing but want good 'product' in a smart phone but have no tying factor to the platform. If all you want is what you perceive to be a good smart phone you have many options, one of which is also the iPhone. You may not even know that the next cool phone being advertised is an Android based product since they mask it pretty well. I personally have never had a cell phone I would buy the next generation of, including my Blackberry Storm, but that's a different story since work says that I shall have a blackberry of some variety.
----- - The beatings will continue until morale improves
77% of iPhone users are fan boys/girls
80% of Android users value freedom of choice
I.O.U One Sig.
Around me, AT&T has nearly (I'd say 85-90%) of the coverage of Verizon, and probably 130-200% more coverage than the next best. When comparing my speed to those on Verizon about a year ago, my data was twice as fast. Then again, I'm not in a major metro area. I doubt we have a lot of iGoobers streaming youtube and pandora on every cell.
I will say that the iPhone appearance of speed in Safari is about twice that of any WinMobile phone I've had, though no faster or slower than the browser on the couple of Blackberries I've seen.
I suspect the satifaction, aside from the Apple factor, has more to do with the particular default setup of the OS than the actual OS efficiency. Android can do a hell of a lot more, but since most (80%? 90%?) of users never change the defaults, most of the people with Android phones are missing out a lot of the potential features. iPhones, otoh, are more of a WYSIWYG experience - if it doesn't exist in the default profile setup, it simply doesn't exist.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Both respondents answered "Ofcourse!"
I have an iPhone and where I live voice and data coverage is great, much better than Verizon. I go to LA a lot and I usually have a lot of problems with reception there for some reason. As for the device itself, I can compare iPhone with Droid directly since my girlfriend has one and I can tell you I wouldn't swap the phones or the providers. She would though. They both do more or less the same things but iPhone UI is much nicer. Btw I can't make the antenna problem happen at all. The best I can do is get one bar to drop and that's with holding it in a completely unnatural way.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I write apps for the android, I've compared 5 different models in my office full of engineers. I continue to stick with each iPhone version because I find the android interface and integration with my computers to suck frankly. I do not have reception problems, I've never been bricked.
I keep hoping android will do better, but the carriers are acting like music companies and screwing up the products in ways I find problematic. I'm not basing this on news, but on evidence from personal experience.
Am I in the reality distortion field or are you?
The vocal minority bitch and moan. The majority of people like the service. It can't be all bad otherwise people would flee. Also, Apple would have nothing to do with a company that its consumers don't support. If Apple is happy then the majority of people are happy.
As I sit here at my house with at best 2 bars of signal. I can't even get push notifications at my own home with AT&T because of poor coverage.
In general in well-travelled places the coverage is okay, although the system does overload at big gatherings (too many iPhone owners in my area I suspect). But if the Verizon deal is real, I'll switch in an instant, just so I can use my phone at my house properly.
After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and in addition to that, satisfied customers usually don't go to great lengths to praise service they're satisfied with.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
This is called Ass-kissing AT&T so they don't reduce the bandwidth caps further and/or drop more calls.
Its not like they had the opportunity to try an iPhone with another carrier.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I think phone companies are much like banks. They're fine until something happens that causes the user displeasure, and then they become the most evil thing on the face of the earth causing them to change their service to some place else. The new place is fine, or even great, until something bad happens there, and then there are two most evil things on the face of the planet.
I'm with AT&T (and an iPhone). They have good service in my area ( I did ask around first for people's opinions of various phone company's service in my city), they had the phone I wanted (pre-iPhone), the store next to my house where I bought my phones, they give my company a discount, and I've never had any issues with them. Why shouldn't I like them?
i bet it is a large case of stockholm syndrome.
...
Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
It's a throw away comment at the end of the story, but I don't believe that 'statistic' for a second.
The only way I can make sense of it, is perhaps the idea that only 20% would buy another Android phone from the same manufacturer. Due to the number of options, the grass always being greener and the effective 'arms race' between Android manufacturers etc that sounds vaguely plausible. But 80% ready to abandon the platform? That has to be nonsense. Apart from anything else, where are they gonna go?
FWIW I have an iPhone, never owned an Android, blah, blah...
Nice troll sopssa! Or should I say, SquarePixel! No more China threads to troll on? Or Google threads? You sounds like a douchebag who is pissed off at Apple making great products.
Keep on trolling fucktard!
In fact, he nailed it spot on. The GP doesn't like the conclusions of the study, so he just assumes the study or the researchers are wrong. It's an excellent illustration of confirmation bias (or, in this case, its inverse).
I started out with Sprint, then Nextel, neither of which was any good. Could never hold on to calls, mad dead spots, problems with reception at home, etc. Then I got verizon and loved it (but hated the phone). Verizon's service was rock solid, but their data plans were way too much. Then my iPod (which I live and die by) broke and I didn't have the cash for both a new phone and a new ipod, so I changed to ATT and got my 32 gb 3gs. The service in the boston area is on par with verizon. I can't speak to the data network, but there are no significant dead spots, I can talk on the phone and move around, etc. The internet is fast enough for what I need it for when Im out.
Even when I drove out to western ny on 88/86 we mostly had (edge) service. A few dead spots between towers, but good enough.
I think NYC has it much worse than I do anywhere I've been.
So I think it just depends on where you are, and also what your expectations are. If you're a wicked heavy internet user and you travel all over the country, yea, obviously verizon is going to beat the shit out of everybody. But if you mostly stay in a place where att has decent coverage and is not overloaded too bad then it will be fine.
We haven't experienced a lot of trouble with the service. I get the occasional dropped call when I'm driving, but it's not enough to be more than a nuisance. I did see a significant network slowdown in terms of data while I was at a Rockies game, but, well, it was at Coors Field with thousands of people there, and many of them probably had AT&T phones, so the network was probably a leetle bit stressed. For the most part, the service is unobtrusive.
This time around, for some reason, one of our phone numbers was eligible for a full-subsidized upgrade to iPhone 4, but the other was not, so we elected to wait and stick with the 3GS another year; in the meantime, iOS 4 would give us many of the advantages of the new phone without having to switch hardware. We made this decision before the antenna flap started, which just made it look all the more intelligent afterwards. It's my opinion that the next iPhone will almost certainly do something about the antenna problems we've seen on the iPhone 4, and it's likely that Apple will take a look at all aspects of the unit's RF performance. When they do, and when they release a new model that incorporates these improvements, we'll upgrade.
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Ah, the "Yankee Group".
Let's take a look at the "independent research organization" called the "Yankee Group" who was the publisher of this rather surprising "study".
The single-sentence introductory paragraph to the rather glowing Yankee Group Wikipedia entry reads as follows: "Yankee Group, a Massachusetts company, sells advice and market-research information relating to information technology".
The Yankee group makes a considerable amount of it's income from the "consulting services" it offers to corporations. Consulting about what? About marketing products.
You might remember the Yankee Group because they were the ones who Microsoft hired to do a study showing that Windows 2003 was superior to Linux "in terms of quality, performance and reliability and that the Windows users are more satisfied than Linux users (think about that). Who did Yankee Group hire to do the actual "study" part? Ah, well, they hired "Sunbelt Software, a vendor of Windows utilities, which publicised the survey solely through a mailing list called W2Knews, billing itself as "the World's first and largest e-zine designed for NT/2000 System Admins and Power Users"."
So, the impartial study about Windows vs Linux was solely published in a Windows user group's online forum.
When Yankee Group was criticized for the many press releases that they put out trumpeting Windows obvious superiority over Linux, this is what happened:
This according to ZDNet.
So, at a time when Microsoft was engaged in a FUD campaign against Linux, pushing their "revolutionary" 2003 Server, they hire the Yankee Group to frame "radical" Linux users as "extremist fringe" and "loonies" and are "disrespectful" and "threatening".
So you're an IT manager and you read that. You want "disrespectful and threatening loonies" working for you or do you want to hire the more satisfied Windows administrators whose platform is "superior" in terms of "quality, performance and reliability"? That was exactly how the press releases from the Yankee Group read.
So, all you iPhone users are just thrilled to death with AT&T? Fascinating...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Seriously, AT&T and the iPhone are probably good enough for the majority of people for what they need it to do. People know nothing is perfect and, so, good enough is fine.
Be more satisfied with what "is" than dissatisfied with what "could be".
Me? I own a Qualcomm QCP-1900 from around 1997 using PrimeCo/nTelos. Don't use it a whole lot, but the phone still works like a champ and I have *never* had a call dropped. I say "bah" to your fancy text and web-enabled phones, mine actually works as a *phone* :-)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
In a shocking development today, it was learned that 97% of the US population actually does not live in New York City or San Francisco.
Everyone has different needs and most aren't as obsessed with freedom of choice. Also most Androids aren't all that free. Most people like the experience of using an iPhone. I don't have one but I have a Touch and it's a great little media player. iTunes being both a strength and weakness. The point is once you have your media in it's pretty painless and stable to use. I'm not at all shocked that 77% would say they would buy another iPhone. I'd even go so far as to say an even higher percentage will end up with a second iPhone after they try to find one they like better. The shocker is the percentage of people happy with AT&T. I find that one hard to believe. I have talked to a couple of iPhone users that happen to live in good coverage areas that are happy with the service. The rest vary from moderately unhappy to blind rage at AT&T. The biggest thing I have to point to considering overall satisfaction is the very fact AT&T has been struggling to keep up with bandwidth since the launch of iPhone. I've had smart phones and I found them more a headache than they were worth but people actually use the iPhone a lot. They aren't the dominant smart phone number wise but they use the bulk of the bandwidth. People may boast about their particular smart phone but people actually use their iPhones.
AT&T Asked For My Social Security Number. They would not even provide me with information on their calling plans or services until I provided it. Fsck them. I will never do business with them again for the entire rest of my life.
They have no need for this number. It is *not* an ID number. In fact, it is illegal to use it as an ID number (although a number of state, county, and local governments use it in exactly this way, illegally). If I did business with AT&T, there would be no taxable events -- no income to me, etc. So they have no need for this number.
Fsck AT&T. They have already received their last dollar from me, and they will never receive another, *even if* they change their ways. Fsck them!
Um, if you do a subjective survey of only people who use the service, of course it's going to get high marks. The people who are dissatisfied with it have mostly left for a different service. This is why you do random samples. So you get a representative sample of the entire population.
The only way the stat they measured carries any weight is if you compare to an identical survey of customers with other phone networks. The relative satisfaction rate between different providers can carry some statistical meaning. e.g. If AT&T's satisfaction rate is 73% and Verizon's is 90% (made up as an example), that tells you something. Otherwise, all you're doing is measuring the degree of self-selection of a self-selected population, which is pretty useless for market analysis.
I had no idea Android phones' ratings were so low; I'd like to see some other studies to make sure this isn't a fluke. That said, anyone who is spinning these numbers as good for Google is self-delusional. If you're claiming a 20% "Would buy again" rating as proof that Android is superior to iPhone, you've crossed into Baghdad Bob territory.
I think Google has done a great job with Android as an operating system, but they really need to start thinking about the Android "experience". As much as people obsess over Apple's banning of apps, it's much easier to write for the iPhone as it has a standard screen size and aspect ratio and the feature set is always a superset of the previous phones. Writing for Android means you have no clue what the screen size, aspect ratio, or resolution will be. You don't know how fast a CPU or how much memory you'll have, or what hardware buttons you'll have, or if you'll have a keyboard and what its layout will be. Android developers either have to only target a subset of phones or try a clunky generalist approach.
Since Android is open-source and has rather permissive licensing, Google doesn't have a huge amount of control over who uses their code. But they could still do like Mozilla and limit use of the Android trademark and logo. Google could insist that "Android"-branded phones meet specific requirements, like, say, their suggested hardware for Android 3: 3.5" screen, 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM. Giving developers a specific target for would do wonders for the Android app market and for the user experience.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I wonder if the major reason people say they love AT&T is because they know it's their only option for an iphone, and they are exceedingly happy with their iphone? I know a lot of people who are extremely happy with their iphones but have nothing to say about AT&T service
Could it REALLY just be the vocal minority that has given rise to the familiar "AT&T sucks, verizon is awesome" mentality? I hear this way too often to believe that it's only a small subset. New York for example has long seemed to be a running gag of AT&T's bad coverage from what I've heard over the years.
..."Get off my lawn!"
AT&T is just like any other carrier they have there good and there bad coverage areas.
http://www.thetechnologygeek.org
Shird hates Apple.
Well, if Apple fans love AT&T, surely there's nothing wrong with them...
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
I think we have a pretty good example of what she's talking about here in the comments section. I own one apple product, an iphone 4. I'm happy with it. I've looked at my co-workers android phones (including the EVO) and I still prefer my iphone but I'm constantly ridiculed as a "sheep", fanboi, etc...
First, It most certainly may be used as an ID number, just not by the federal government. It's a number I can find out about you, given your name and address, for about $30 or less. They're about spend $30 on you at their call center to answer your stupid ass questions you could have figured out from their website. They're going to make sure that you actually have the credit necessary for them to give you an $800 handset for $200, and let you walk out the door having (effectively) financed the rest over two years.
Someday, you may grow up and own a company, and you'll understand this kind of thing. We don't give a shit if you're a billionaire wearing a T-shirt and ripped jeans. There's a 99.999% chance your a bum with nothing better to do than waste our time and money because you're bored, and your attitude shows it. Real billionaires don't usually have a chip on their shoulder, and those that do - well, let's just say you'd rather not do business with them anyway.
Consider this troll well fed.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I have both carriers and i will say that verizon has much better coverage then at&t. However at&t coverage isnt as bad as people make it out to be. I travel around the country and there has only been a handful of places that my at&t phone wont work. Mostly in the lower part of michigan but its usually only for short time when traveling down the road. But to be fair my service on my verizon phone in these areas is only slightly better. Rather then not being able to make a call i can make one but its the type of call that u have to speak in fragments so that people understand what you are saying since if you talk steady every other word is lost. Given if your counting bars and not actual quality of service verizon wins hands down. But i base it on the fact that if i make a call the call goes through and doesnt get dropped.
I was going to post something similar, but you have stated the case very well. As far as Iphone verses Android, people will buy what they think is cool. It is just a matter of perception. At&t verses other carriers, that is a matter of location of use. Polls are useless and should be ignored. They are a marketing ploy used to sway peoples opinions.
iPhone users could care less about cell phone reception.
iPhone.
I fucking hate AT&T but not as much as Sprint. I fucking hate Apple more. I love my iPhone and I'm lucky that I can afford to pay $150/month for service (We have 2 phones w/ data).
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
1. What BSD had in the 80s and 90s, those were worms, not technically viruses. But you can be forgiven for not understanding the distinction.
2. OSX kernel is not a BSD variant. the userspace is a BSD variant. The kernel is a Mach variant with a BSD personality welded onto it. (If I showed you some BSD code in the Windows98 kernel would you claim that Win98 is a "BSD variant").
3. Apple's website specifically mentions malware. So any over-simplification is on your part, not Apple's in this case.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It's posts like these that make people want to ridicule you, it has nothing to do with your preference for Apple products.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Living in the Tampa bay area, I honestly believe I would go back to a land line (which I left in 97') before going back to AT&T. Most phone calls with them would drop within 3 minutes. There suggestion was for me to purchase another phone, even though my phone was less than 6 months old. I will never be an AT&T customer again. Same goes for my Sprint experience. AT&T is the only reason I will not buy an iPhone. Currently pleased with my Verizon/Droid combo. T-mobile was fine, as well.
My iPhone drops a *lot* of calls - at least a few every day (whether I'm at home, at a client or on the road).
My iPhone drops calls a lot too, it seems. Which is extremely ironic seeing as how I have an AT&T femtocell.
However, from my experience with other AT&T phones and other AT&T customers, I've been seeing that, more often than not, it's really just this damn phone that drops calls, regardless of network conditions. Coverage is another story, but I find that their coverage in the greater Cleveland area is fine. Out in the boondocks is another story, but overall their service is okay.
I'll laugh my ass off, though, if the iPhone comes to Verizon and it drops calls constantly. If it doesn't, I'll be pissed that, for some reason, every other phone manufacturer can handle weaker coverage but Apple can't.
...Though I guess that would make sense. What else would you expect from a mobile phone that's not manufactured or designed by a company that, quite frankly, isn't known for producing quality mobile phones for decades.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
When someone overpays for something, they feel they must love it or they are an idiot. Apple has based their entire business model on this. Every Apple product, even the ever-so-popular iPod, has had competitors that have been nearly unanimously rated as better by both critics and customers. Both the iPhone 4 and the iPad are grossly inferior to products that preceded them. Nevertheless, Apple's highly polished turds keep selling, because the vast majority of their customers are going to rationalize their purchases rather than admit they were stupid previously.
I just figure they're not going to buy another phone because the one they have is fine.
For all intents and purposes, the Yankee Group *IS* Laura Didio.
Ms. Didio is famous for declaring how strong SCOX(Q)'s cases against IBM and Novell were... until they lost.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I was on the old Cingular network when I first went into business. My first smartphone was a Treo 650. It sucked. Switched to a Treo 700p on Verizon a couple of years later when it came out. Network was a little better, phone sucked worse. Far worse.
After debating it with myself for a while, I bought the first iPhone when it came out in 2007. I still wasn't impressed by the AT&T network, but the phone worked so well I didn't care. When 3G came to pass I was unimpressed enough that if Verizon had an equivalent phone then that could have done simultaneous voice and data I might have switched.
Starting in late 2008, the AT&T network in my area's gotten a lot better. Good enough that I'm not tempted to switch anymore. I upgraded to the iPhone 4 last month, and antenna problems or not it improves reception even more for me - drop spots I had with older AT&T phones (going back to my Treo 650) are not a problem anymore. 3G speeds are excellent. When my VZ contract expires for the data card I have with them next month I will cancel it and just use tethering on my iPhone to save more money.
Basically, I pay less than I used to, have a better phone, and next to no network issues anywhere I go regularly. On the rare occasion I've had to call customer service they've been helpful and easy to reach. More than once they've called me back to follow up and make sure I'm happy. Bottom line for me - I'm happy with AT&T, and I see no reason to change. And I'm a happy iPhone user as well. As long as they don't screw it up, I'll stick with AT&T.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
So... 80% of Android customers are satisfied with their phones, whereas 77% of iPhone owners feel that they need to replace theirs.
Statistics are so open to interpretation
No surprise there...Android has been adopted by T-Mobile and Verizon (and Sprint) as an iPhone slayer...AT&T has imposed its firmware restrictions on its Android phones to limit options and because of the way the spectrum is cut up in the US, none of T-Mobile's 3G devices work on AT&T's network and vice-versa...so it's not like they're are a bunch of G1s and MyTouches running on AT&Ts network...those people would be with T-Mobile...so basically, if you're asking AT&T customers about Android, odds are, they're not happy with it and didn't look at phone first and carrier second...
Sheeple.
(other words to fill in for the slashdot comment filter)
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Everybody's service sucks. I hear Verizon customers bitch all day long then someone mentions iPhone and all off a sudden they love Verizon and AT&T is the devil. I have had many carriers and they all suck. I tolerate AT&T's suck because the iPhone is better than any other phone I have tried.
Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
What exactly does that mean? I will be one of the 20% who buys another Android phone - but that is simply because I own a G1 which is getting long in the tooth. On the other hand, let's say I owned the HTC Droid Incredible, then I doubt I would be getting a new Android phone - I'd simply keep accepting the OTA Android upgrades. Most top of the line Android phones cause no reason to upgrade the hardware - while the iPhone line is a little different in that respect.
There are a ton of other factors that can come into play, not the least of which being how the question itself was worded.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
"We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash."
And what he likely meant was "We also know first hand that Flash is the number one cause of application crashes on the Mac."
Of course you just assumed that Macs come to a grinding halt when the flash apps crash, because hey, that's what he said, isn't it? How about pointing to a reproducible instance of a flash app taking down the OS?
I wonder what percentage of android users even know they are using an Android phone? Verizon on the other hand did a great job with the Droid name, to the point I have to describe to my friends that other networks also have "Droids". Google needs to start doing better maybe something fun like working with manufacturers to ship some android green earbuds with every phone and do some Apple spoof commercials with silhouettes of the users dancing.
Well.
I have an Android phone - an HTC Legend, running Android 2.1
So - what's it like?
Coverage issues aside (I am on Vodaphone in Australia and cannot get any reception at the desk where I work, it's infuriating. I actually have my number forward to another phone just for that problem), it's ok.
Not fabulous, just ok. As a phone it is average - I previously had a Sony Ericsson K660i which I loved, it was surprisingly capable (I could get GMail and sync my contacts, but not calendar unfortunately) and the battery lasted ages. Great little thing. Keypad starting to wear out after 2 years of light use.
The HTC/Android software feels mostly average. Not brilliant. It feels a bit - well - clunky. I find myself with iPhone envy.
Battery consumption - pretty high - if I actually use the phone, I need to recharge every 1-2 days.
WiFi - reception is not great. In my front room I can use a laptop on wireless, but not the HTC.
The main phone apps could be so much better. When I look someone up, I may want to phone them, or I may want to message them. This takes far, far too many clicks.
The games are great - and I love the app store with a lot of useful things. Bit hard to find actual good ones, but such is life.
Am I satisfied - yes. Am I overjoyed - no. Am I looking forward to 2.2 - yes. Would I buy another Android - maybe. Hopefully it will improve a lot!
"Cats like plain crisps"
Thank you! I'm so sick of reading reviews of the iPhone, and OF COURSE there is only one country in the world....the world population is 300 Million, not 6-7 BILLION you know!
We get it, people all around the world think "AT&T" and think "Vista". Just like Microsoft's product, sure, there are people saying "its not as bad as you think, please, come back!"....but we dont buy it (in both senses of the phrase).
I mean....when you have a superb cellphone running on a network with "telegraph" in its name....then you just KNOW theres going to be issues!
Perhaps AT&T should rebrand as Cingular again? The ol' Mohave Experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_Experiment
---
This isnt really all that shocking. The vocal few who make up the world of blogs rarely represent the public as a whole. If AT&T were as bad as the internet loudmouths insisted they were, they'd be out of business years ago. No phone - even the much praised iPhone - could keep them in business if their network was unusable.
Holy crap, there IS truth outside of what bloggers say!
Good answer, good answer!
Seriously, who are these mongs rating 2-9? What information do they think this conveys? You either like a service, or you don't. 10. 1. There is no 5.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I sent a query to the Yankee Group shortly after seeing that CNN article. The results are unbelievable: There have been various prior studies that found quite different numbers.
Even if you ignored prior studies, it is a basic human tendency to justify what you've purchased, making excuses for one's decision even against overwhelming evidence. Even if Android phones were shocking their users, I would still expect at least 2/3rds of users to claim that they love it.
And of course Android has been getting pretty damn decent. The majority of phones are running 2.1 now, and while 6 months ago you were a second class citizen with an Android phone, nowadays most major apps are doing parallel releases given the growth of the Android ecosystem. If Android made it through the ugly months, with mediocre hardware, quirky OS', and no software support, I find it hard to believe it would do so poorly now.
So my query to Yankee was whether that sentence in the CNN article was correct, and also what their methodology is. They didn't respond. Does *anyone* know what their methodology was?
I can say right now that the 20% thing, if quoted accurately, guarantees that their survey is completely tainted and is utterly worthless. Maybe they posted a voluntary survey at mac.com or something.
But nonetheless, every Mac/Apple/iPhone site and fanatic is posting the results to assure themselves that they're richer, prettier, more intelligent, etc.
You go to get your car washed. You spot some attractive, scantily clad young ladies (or men, depending on your preference) offering car washes on the side of the road. You pull in and they wash your car. They charge you more than you would pay at a regular car wash, and they do a terrible job, but you were given a complimentary soft drink and a view of them for 15 minutes as they gyrated all around your car. How would you rate your car washing experience?
Oh, was that my outside voice?
Speaking of chips on shoulders, getting a little over zealous with your response eh? Seriously man, anger management. Comcast does the same thing, requires a social security number before you even sign a contract. No, I don't want to give some random outsourced worker my number and I don't want a needless credit check on my record. Sure, I understand why it benefits a company to do it but it's just a creepy practice that I'm sure turns off a large percentage of potential customers. I'm wary about giving it out when I sign the contract let alone when I'm chatting with some random rep. No thanks!
...is getting worked up over a cell phone. It's not a religion, people. Folks buy things, and then they enjoy them. I'm happy that people are happy with their purchases. They worked at their job. They made money. The spent it on something they wanted. Nobody was killed or injured. Done.
While the rest of the audience enjoys their dumb comedy, you're shouting "Stop laughing! Can't you all see the plot is nonsensical?!". There is a problem, but it isn't with the rest of the audience.
What you are describing sounds a lot like that "Think different" stuff, yet you say it as if it's a bad thing.
Since when did nonconformity become a positive thing only if it's used to sell Apple products?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I have a hard time believing Android users are suddenly discontent with Android phones.
I own an iphone and don't hate att. There coverage is often lacking and inconsistent but I'd rather deal with that then Verizon's desire to lock down parts of my phone like the ability to blue tooth files and other petty usage issues.
As long as you can afford it then go with Verizon. The reason I switched from Verizon Wireless to AT&T was due to the premium price, annoying customer service, phantom unexplained charges and the increasing number of minutes forced on me as a consumer over the years that I only used once my son had a phone. Now I get largely the same service for less money. As others have explained, the coverage in the DC and Baltimore areas is just fine, thanks. Now I get more than one bar worth of signal at my own house.
If I could get what I have now for about $30 less a month from Verizon Wireless I would not have switched. As it is my wife and I are happy and the phones work great. They are not iPhones (which I would consider a waste) but they are 3G multiple network phones which is likely why we do not have to worry so much about dropped calls here.
bob@Osprey:~>
I pay $40/mo for unlimited voice, text, and web. $40 -- including taxes. Take that to the bank AT&T ;)
in the AT&T terms of services it says if we write anything bad or negative about AT&T they have the right to cancel our services and ban us from ever using them again. What is there not to love?
I mean AT&T even has a Death Star Logo, and a real live Death Star out there somewhere, so the Empire er ah sorry AT&T will send in their Stormtroopers er ah employees and contractors to remove our services if we do say, type, or post anything negative or bad about them. Now I don't want a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader any more than the rest of us do, and hope his son Luke Skywalker comes back to turn him away from The Dark Side and back to being a Jedi again. But until that happens we all love AT&T, or else.
Not like AT&T is a monopoly any more, nor that Apple prevents others from using other cell phone companies and thus create a virtual monopoly for iPhone cell and G3/G4 services. But anyway I cannot afford an iPhone but use AT&T DSL. I mean it is no AOL or even Juno or NetZero, but hey it works. Not like I really needed the bandwidth anyway and the lost Internet connections and resetting the DSL modem and router several times a day gave me enough exercise to lose 15 pounds in a month. So I call it my AT&T DSL Diet and Exercise plan as I lose my appetite from all the worrying that my Internet connection is going to last or get cut off. That is why I love it, Big brother er ah AT&T that is, who monitor everything I type. Besides the downtime from not being on the Internet as much made me saner.
I live in Queens and work in the Village. I don't have dropped calls OR data trouble. On the other hand, I've been an AT&T mobile customer since the '90s and have a fairly large bill (multiple lines, lots of features).
Is it possible that there is some sort of tiered access to towers, with me getting priority?
I always hear Slashdotters talking about piss-poor AT&T service in NYC, yet I never seem to experience it. Maybe I'm just lucky and my home and workplaces are right underneath towers or something. I have no idea, but it's beginning to dawn on me that I'm having different experiences from many NYC AT&T customers.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I don't know if this was from the Yankee group both times or not, but about 9 months after each iPhone purchase, AT&T has sent me an e-mail survey asking in some detail my opinions of the phone, apps, network, customer service, etc.
And yes, I've always given high marks. Perfect more or less for the iPhone, it's been a revelation after years with Palm. Only slightly less than perfect for the AT&T marks. I've always been very happy with AT&T's service and coverage. That's more than I can say for Verizon.
Yes, the last time I was with them for wireless was in the mid '90s, but that was a nightmare. And I still have to rely on Verizon for the wires coming into my home, and I HATE (H A T E) them for that. They can't get anything right, none of their CS people know anything, billing mistakes on odd months, service interruptions, and etc. etc.
No way I want that bureaucracy anywhere near my primary mode of communication (mobile phone). I'll stick to AT&T, thanks, who has always had fast, accurate, and knowledgeable customer service people when I've needed them, and which has on several occasions offered me early upgrades in-store simply for asking if I could have an early upgrade.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Where else can they go?
There's no context at all for that statement; and of course we don't know what questions were really asked to arrive at that conclusion. It could be as simple as Android users being happy with the capabilities of their platform so not feeling the *need* to upgrade to the latest. Or it could be that Apple does much better at marketing each new generation of its phones, making people feel they must have the new features. .
On the other hand, having 27% of your customer base unhappy with your chosen exclusive carrier is probably nothing to brag about. Too, this number is suspiciously close to the 23% of iPhone users who won't buy another iPhone -- perhaps because of carrier lock-in?
Anecdotal and irrelevant perhaps, but I had AT&T dial up years ago and it was shit. Their rolling over and allowing scrutiny of the data that passes through their network by the NSA etc. Not good. I wouldn't touch them.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
And many countries in dictatorship loved their presidents-for-life.
Draw your parallels.
Huh. That's rather contradictory, considering that all the Android owners I know (myself included) absolutely love our phones, while the one person I've met with an iPhone was alright with the hardware, but hated the AT&T service. For the record, the only things I have beef with when it comes to the iPhone is AT&T for the "unlimited" data service, the app market for its draconian policies, and the overall closed nature of the phone.
Sent from my CR-48
In a report sure to raise eyebrows, CNN Money reports that despite a very vocal group of detractors, the vast majority of iPhone users love AT&T
.
Thus proving once again that the opinions of Slashdotters have little in common with the opinions of the majority.
the support effort for an entire extended family of Macs is so much smaller than for the equivalent number of Windows PCs that the point is moot.
I've gone through the same transition as the GP post and that was my experience.
I love posts like this. You bought an Apple for the *right* reasons, everyone else bought an Apple because they are brand-fucking Mactards...priceless.
You, my friend, are what we (in the business) call a dick. Because of this, in all likelihood, your wife likes her computer more than she likes you. Chew on that for awhile.
If they are so confident about the strength of their network... Let's have actual competition between networks and say a big "fuck you" to exclusive devices. Ban subsidies and 2-year contracts. Mandate GSM for Sprint and Verizon. Get the phone manufacturers to produce phones that operate on all frequencies.
Of course, they don't really mean that they're confident in the network strength. The carriers do not compete on the basis of network strength in the United States. That is the way they want it.
Supposedly can't be real for 2 years or so; with exclusivity deal, et al.
Anyway, even when it comes to Verizon, it will surely be for their LTE network. Nobody can really say how good / how quickly this one will get.
One that hath name thou can not otter
It's my opinion that the next iPhone will almost certainly do something about the antenna problems we've seen on the iPhone 4, and it's likely that Apple will take a look at all aspects of the unit's RF performance. When they do, and when they release a new model that incorporates these improvements, we'll upgrade.
Perhaps they will, and perhaps they will not...
But I live in Denver, and the iPhone 4 gets better reception as-is than my 3Gs did. I don't like cases and had no plans to get one, I've really not run into issues with this.
I skipped the 3G iPhone and my plan was to skip a generation after the 3Gs. But between the screen and the speed/memory boost, and the better reception - the iPhone 4 is I think a worthy upgrade even over the 3Gs.
One last thing to consider is that the larger memory in the iPhone 4 means you can load larger images in the browser - I'm able to get something like 2600 x 1700 images loading in now, which would just not load at all on the 3Gs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It depends on the market, for sure. Here in the Washington DC area, AT&T is the combined 1900 MHz AT&T and 850 MHz Cingular. The service has provided superior voice coverage, moved to the higher-coverage 850 MHz band, with data in the 1900 MHz band. People tend to notice problems more on the voice network so it's top-notch here in DC.
On the other side of things, the New York City market is where AT&T coverage suffers. In the past, T-Mobile and Cingular created a network called "GSM Partners" which created a powerful, market-saturating 1900 MHz network for Cingular and T-Mobile, while the also-ran AT&T competed with a spotty, pathetic 1900 MHz network with hardly any 850 MHz coverage. When Cingular and AT&T merged, that network was required to be divested to sole owner T-Mobile. As a result, T-Mobile is solid coverage in New York City, but AT&T is a pathetic, spotty player.
It really depends on where you live. Los Angeles market has a similar situation. Here in DC, we love our AT&T network with solid 850 MHz voice and 1900 MHz data. It's too bad it's not so good in NYC and other markets.
Kriston
73% of iPhone owners scored their satisfaction with the carrier as an 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale.
Well, duh, of course the results of their unscientific survey look that way - this does not take into account all of the people in bad AT&T service areas who have already given up, sold their iPhoneies on eBay, and switched to another carrier - it was a survey of current iphone users. It also doesn't account for all of the iphone owners who were unable to respond because they couldn't connect, nor the fact that there are lots of morons who keep using crap because the don't know that there are better options, or simply can't admit that what they have isn't awesome.
It is simply factual that AT&T's network doesn't have a great enough capacity in many cities, and that their 3G footprint is not as big as Verizon's (not that I would ever promote Verizon).
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
I assume you're posting from personal experience...
I never understood the anti-AT&T hype that's been around since the iPhone came out. They've been my only cellphone provider since back when they were Cingular, it's been almost ten years now, and I've never had reception problems. The only time I get dropped calls is when I cross a road called "County Line" which is true to its name. But that was fairly easy to get used to, "I'm about to switch counties so the call will drop, let me call you back." I try not to talk on the phone too much while driving anyway, my car's a stick-shift so it's kind of awkward.
I always assumed that I didn't experience the problems of other users because Cingular was an early carrier in my area. But I've traveled quite a bit with it and it's always been dependable. I drop a bar or two in the Appalachians, but it still works. I always figured I was just lucky because here on Slashdot everyone's lambasted AT&T's service for the last couple years, but perhaps that's just a sign of how good Verizon's marketing has been.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
I suppose location matters most in the survey. Did they do a geographic spread representative of the country or did they stick to urban centers? In the somewhat rural area in which I live, almost no one uses AT&T because they can barely get any reception. In fact, if I were to travel five miles north and stand downtown of the nearest town, I would get no AT&T reception at all. This while I get maximum Verizon signal do to the huge tower that's nearby.
But 80% ready to abandon the platform? That has to be nonsense. Apart from anything else, where are they gonna go?
At a guess, 80% are people who have been told by their geeky friends that android is better than iPhone, and subsequently bought one... Then gone "wait, no it isn't, I'm going back to iPhone next time".
That's two "glorious" Apple campaigns down the drain.
What's next?
iPads not being magical?
iPods not making you dance in a 3-color world?
Mac is actually a PC?
Is everything Steve ever told us actually a lie?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Where I live (Central NJ) we have some very good AT&T coverage, I think because we are also home to AT&T's headquarters.
I researched coverage before I bought my iPhone 2+ years ago, and 6 mos ago upgrading was a no-brained. Do I wish the bill was lower? Sure. Do I wish the network was faster? Sure, but that doesn't mean I'm dissatisfied with what they offer.
Ken
Keypad starting to wear out after 2 years of light use.
That is unfortunately a common Sony Ericsson syndrome. The keypad on my W580i was so fragile that dropping it from less than 10 cm would break a key or two.
"The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I really should know better than to read a thread on any topic that involves the phrase "survey says"*, but this is ridiculous for a site orientated towards maths and science in general. Surveys are an atrocious method of data collection even when conducted with extreme care by that most rare creature, the independent researcher.
* Or "Apple".
The N900 gives you the best of both worlds, it's basically a handheld ARM Linux PC and it gets a 4 Cudgels from Will It Bludgeon B-)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
How are the three providers for iPhones over there?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Your HTC software must be very different from mine. On mine, when I pull up someone's contact card it's a single tap to phone them, message them, or whatever.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
How can anyone *love* their telecom provider? The don't do anything except charge what the market will bear (which they are REALLY good at estimating) and overcharge for stuff that should come with the contract. They all stink at some level... if they didn't there would be no horror stories. My droid *should* allow me to take that stupid amazon mp3 store app OFF MY DAMN PHONE without having to do something stupid. And the iPhone is for wieners and should not have to be "jailbreak"ed to run skype etc. Here is their business model: our customers get the privilege of shelling out a ton of cash for this crap, and then we don't let them do what they want with their own stuff!
We should be surprised by this? They're already using Apple products so they're used to having crap when it comes to products or service.
This result tells a lot more about iPhone users than it tells about the iPhone.
I have an Android phone. From what I've seen, it seems like the iPhone vs Android comparison is much like the Windows vs Linux debate.
On one hand you have the iPhone that is the best thing ever because thats what you're told. It has a fancy UI and a shiny apple logo. Sounds like Windows with a shiny MS logo.
Then you have Android. Customizable which can be good, but can be screwed with by phone manuf. which can be bad. Much like linux distros, some do it right while others suck.
The thing with Android is, there are many phones so there is some competition within itself. There is pretty much just one iPhone, not several versions of it. I think someone just needs to create the right phone with android for it to be successful. Amazingly, this doesn't seem to have happened yet. After reading reviews, the complaint is rarely "the OS sucks", its "the keys are spaced idiotically" or "its too thick"--problems with the devices, not the OS.
I want to know how Yankee formed their poll questions up.
I'll bet that the questions were set up as being vague, hard to understand, and clicking on either one would equal a positive uptick for at&t.
I also want to know the coverage of their polling. Was it already pre-ordained where they would be polling people by at&t, knowing damned well they would get high marks? Did they even bother with fringe areas, or even New York for that matter?
All this sums up to astroturfing, pure and simple.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
The argument against AT&T, for me, doesn't involve how good their coverage is; that is irrelevant. For me the argument goes back to the clipper chip (aka: wiretap chip). Not really into using a company that doesn't think much of customer privacy. Then there is the little issue of them cooperating with the NSA on illegal data acquisition and data mining on the internet. So, the idea of paying them to 'secure' my data is laughable.
hi antdude,
Vodafone NZ http://www.vodafone.co.nz/iphone/plans.jsp is the only "official carrier", but its not an exclusive deal, presumably the others could also carry the iPhone.
The plans are expensive if you ask me, look at how little "talk" we get compared to in the USA! No NZers really talk on a cellphone, for decades now we've all txted. Of course, the iPhones bought online or from a store are "unlocked", and you can pop the Vodafone SIM out, to go to another network. Simple!
Overall, Telecom has the best network I think, in terms of speed, definitely, I'm sticking with prepaid on Vodafone as soon as I get my new iPhone 4 (out the 30th here), but might change later.
---
Wasn't Yankee Group the one that went on ad nausea about the strength of SCO/Caldera's claims? Just sayin'.
I recently read that it takes about 3 years due to the approval process to get a cell tower built in San Fran. That may have something to do with it.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
About the mojave thing... all that proved was if you have an OS set up on well tested hardware with only well tested software installed so that everything works flawlessly, people will rate it as good. Not exactly a big surprise there. Really they should have had people install "Mojave" on their home PCs and use it for about a month and then rate it. Their ratings would likely have been closer to what people gave for the Vista brand.
Similarly AT&T could get people to try their network under a different name in an area where there is good coverage and the network is fast. Guess what they'll find? Yeah, people like it.
Oh and I had a similar experience with the MacBook Pro. When I tried it in the apple store it worked really well and I liked it. But after I bought the damn thing and used it for a few months, I didn't really like it anymore.
boxwood, I really dont think Microsoft were "rigging" the demo any more than is obvious, surely the computers were standard, not some custom built "supercomputers" with TERABYTES of RAM etc! :) I'm a longtime Mac user, and think that this "Mojave Experiment" is a dirty trick...but cmon, I doubt it was REALLY stacked against the consumer?
:)
I dont know where you live, but what I meant was, I live in New Zealand, the bottom of the world, and yet I know as well as anyone that AT&T SUCKS big time. They have just about the worst brand image I could think of....even worse than BP right now.
I get excited about new hardware reviews, Apple, Android...I was interested to hear about the HP Slate vapourware... And in nearly every review of the iPhone, AT&T is always mentioned, often as one of the one or two major drawbacks of the phone. I live at the other end of the world, and yet, its drummed into us in a way that would take BILLIONS in positive spin to alter, that AT&T is absolute shit, and should be abolished!
With your MBP, what happened? What was different in the store compared to when you got home? Did it start belching fire and smoke?
---
iPhone owners pick themselves. They put up with the spotty AT&T network because
1) iPhones are pretty great. Maybe not *the* best, but there's no denying that they're very nice and while not hassle-free, it's simple to get a lot out of them. Those who want to do things Apple doesn't approve don't have a terribly hard time hacking the device.
2) iPhone users don't buy it primarily for the phone part. They use it mainly for the data part. AT&T does a much better job at keeping the data flowing than at keeping the calls from being dropped. Granted, that data service degrades more gracefully than voice, but you've got to admit that AT&T is, with the exception of a few very-hard-to-service markets, doing a decent job at delivering the data. I can't make calls at home, but when my wifi is out, i still can surf the web at reasonable speeds.
3) Yes, there is some illusion going on given the fact that most people can use their phones most of the time in range of WiFi and so crappy cellular service gets somewhat masked by the fact that it isn't as visible as often.
I recently bought an used 3G[S]. I hooked it up on the iPad data plan. No voice service, only data. Yes it takes a bit of special procedure to make this work and VOIP is not as good (Apple doesn't make it easy to answer VOIP calls and drop-outs are more common) as regular GSM, but it works and the price is right. Now that I've seen how nice it is to use these stupid things, I'm really getting a hankering for buying iPhone 4 and either paying the early termination fee or keeping the regular AT&T service. $80/mo. adds up fast, but part of me thinks it might be worth it. Yes, I hate some of the restrictions on the phone ($20 extra for tethering is asinine, as is blocking of certain apps including Google Voice) I thought about jailbreaking and unlocking to use the phone with T-Mobile. It's not worth it. Unlimited everything for $40/mo sounds nice but who wants slow data? (T-Mobile's 3G freq. aren't supported by iPhone hardware).
The fact is that Android just doesn't quite measure up (for me), yet. For some (perhaps most) people, it's fine. I admit that there's some big flaws in iOS that need fixing (notifications are badly done, backgrounding is a joke). But, overall the phone usually just works the way it should and the app store does serve to keep up the quality of apps. I can't agree with everything they've done, but there are many things they did right and no one else has yet matched them for what I want. To be honest, I wouldn't have bought an iPhone if I had to pay the full price for service, but using it every day for the past month has made me a believer (for now). If the battery life on the next gen EVO gets better, perhaps I'll try that.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected in a landslide, with 100% of the population voting.
I would assume it's due to the fanboy nature of iPhone users. The same percentage are STILL happy with their malfunctioning devices.
This is a pet peeve of mine, messages that are trying to create an opinion for the reader, using phrases to force someone else's opinion into my own.
Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
I want to know why the usage. "Somewhat alarming" could have been left out of the original poster and carried the same weight. What is alarming about it? Is it alarming for Apple because they do not have a higher rate? Or because Android has such a high rate? Or is it vice versa? What makes it alarming?
It's simply the best option for most of us. If you have trouble with T-Mobile and are in the US you are stuck between AT&T and them, so all the nice Nokia GSM phones (like the n900) are closed off from you. So if Sprint or Verizon are the best carriers in your area you are stuck picking an Android phone if you want something relatively open. Even so, you'll have to root your phone to get rid of crapware. You'll pay way less for apps (way more useful, free apps out there). You'll remember why you installed AdBlock Plus on your desktop in the first place. You'll have to deal with Sprint's incompetent tech support if you have them as a carrier.
If I lived in Europe I'd have a n900 in a heartbeat. I'll just add this pet peeve to my list of why I'd rather live in Europe (somewhere around 900 items now). Yes, I've lived in two European countries and in the US and most US folks don't realize how bad we have it here.
"77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
So 77% of iPhone users were conned but are so brainwashed that are sucker for more of the same.
In the other hand Android users are perfectly happy with their devices and don't need to buy new ones because there is no media frenzi about it.
If the stats would have been "77% of Android users say nex phone will by uncle's Steve" then yeah, that would be scary.
Tha the brainwashed wants to send brain to washing machine again is hardly surprising.
... however, two key places I either get no coverage at all (at my desk at work) or get a weak signal (at home). In practice this hasn't been a huge problem because I don't really use my iPhone that much for calls (I didn't use my previous non-iPhone for calls much either, mostly just the "should I pick up a pizza?" variety of calls). Also, at home it works fine as long as you're careful not to go into certain corners of the house. :) But I mostly use it for data. So at work I've got WiFi and at home I've got WiFi. At work I also have a phone and at home I have a phone, and anyone I would want calling me knows those numbers (as well as some I'd rather didn't, sadly). Outside of these locations coverage is generally good, which is not to say perfect. Overall it works well and is fast (not WiFi fast, but it's decently fast), especially with my iPhone 4 which, in spite of "Where have our subscribers gone?" publications like Consumer Reports, gets a signal in more places and gets a much more reliable signal in more places, then my previous iPhone. But, hey, facts such as that don't matter much when you're competing with blogs - the noisiest one gets the page hits.
--- What?
...most crack users say they love their dealers, and would be happy to buy another hit from them! :-O
Where will they go? There's iPhone of course... There's even WinMo 6.5. There's even Palm Pre. Blackberry? Or... N900? Okay, so the N900 one's more a joke.
But there's plenty of choices.
To me, there's no reason why 80% of customers not returning is unreasonable. There's plenty of options. There's plenty of reasons.
Some might not like Android. Some might think that smartphones cost them too much money. Some might have been turned off by the bloatware.
If you counted it on paper, I'm technically an iPhone to WinMo 6 convert on my main cell line. I do have an iPhone, and I'm planning on upgrading to another iPhone even as a secondary line. But despite that, my main phone is running WinMo.
One of my friends works for Google and has ditched both of the free Android phones she's been given for an iPhone. At least she sold the N1 instead of giving it away as if it wasn't worth anything.
Another guy I know just bought a Palm Pre. Yeah, after the Palm HP merger occurred. Not just announced but actually merged. I asked why and he was more confident in HP supporting the platform than Google. Plus, comparison between the Palm SDK and the Android SDK, the Palm SDK felt more polished.