Today, 24th June 2010, I am once again a AT&T mobile phone customer after 18 months as customer of t-Mobile. I am the owner once again of an Apple iPhone, make that two Apple iPhone 4's... gosh I've spend a lot of money on mobile phones and service over the years!
So I'm going to record my first day experience of the new iPhone 4 and some of my overall points of experience with 'smart phones' over the years.
- iPhone 4: iPhone 4 is an amazing piece of technology. Two months ago, the iPad was the amazing device, still is in a different space, however the hype, actual interest in the device and the technology makes the iPhone 4 even a bigger event than the iPad introduction. I do think the tablet size device like the iPad is going to change how we do computing more over the next two years than the iPhone 4, however the 'human' interest in the iPhone 4 makes it the news event of 2010.
- Mobile history: Somewhere around 1996 I became one of the first GSM mobile phone customers on the west coast of the USA, when Pacific Bell PCS introduced service in Los Angeles. There was another company offering GSM service in New York city prior to Pacific Bell making the commitment to GSM, however Pac Bell's entry was the first of the big 'Ma Bell' operating company named companies to adopt this technology. This was during the conversion from analog mobile technology to digital, AMPS was the analog stuff. GSM was already well established in ten's of countries around the world, but USA was in our 'let the competition decide the mode as usual. I'm not sure I'm saying that is a bad thing, however in the USA, the choice of CDMA and GSM is fairly unique, few other countries have allowed the growth of two wireless technologies and none with as large a customer base [I will admit that China does have both, so I do know that but as with USA, a unique economic model there].
- Pickup and phone number porting: Back to the current, enough history for now. I picked up two iPhone 4 32 GB units at the Goleta AT&T store this afternoon about 2:30 pm PDT. No line. Ian, the the AT&T rep was able to get me up and running with both phone in about 20 minutes. I moved my existing mobile number over from t-Mobile as part of the purchase. The operational side of this was completed quickly, however the new iPhone that was targeted for the ported number did not received or make calls using my existing number as I left the store, Ian indicated it would take about 30 minutes for the transfer to occur. And in fact this was the case. This occurred very smoothly as compared to my experience of moving my existing number 3 years ago to the 1st generation iPhone. On that transfer, it took about 8 hours for the transfer to occur, even though at that time I was porting from any existing AT&T phone to the iPhone. Clearly a big improvement in the number portability process since 27th of June 2007, almost exactly 3 years since my 1st iPhone experience. I do note that I have done two 'between carrier' transfers since this first number portability experience and both have happened in less than an hour and have been trouble free. So the process of moving number between mobile carriers is a non issue for me for the last two years. I sense that there are still issues for folks in this area today and I am guessing it is around billing, contract and not knowing your account number/password issues. But if you get your arms around these before you do a number transfer, it is will happen quickly and stress free.
- iPhone 4: One of the two units I purchased had a defective display. Ian at the AT&T store pointed out to me that the display on one of the units had a series of 'bright spots' arcing across the screen. It was nothing that made the unit unusable, but was clearly a defect of some type. He said that he did not have any replacement units and his recommendation was to take the unit and in a couple days go to the Apple store in downtown Santa Barbara and get it exchanged.
- iPhone accessories: I asked about cases for the iPhone 4 at the AT&T store and they said they had received one box of cases and they were sold out. Expecting more the next day. If I were product manager at AT&T, I would sell my soul to the devil to make sure I had accessories all over the place on first day, pure profit. More on the Best Buy aspect of this later. AT&T had very few iPhone 4 specific accessories today, a real miss. I am guessing their profit margin on the initial iPhone and contract is 'okay', but to augment this with a set of USD 100 'impulse' buys for almost every iPhone 4 picked up is very dumb to not be ready for. I talk about going over to a close by Best Buy store below. It was clear that Best Buy, at least this store, received very few iPhone 4's on opening day, however they had a better selection of iPhone 4 specific cases and accessories than either the Santa Barbara Apple store or either of the AT&T stores I visited on 'first day'. Best Buy does seems to understand the accessory impulse buy much more than either Apple or AT&T.
- iPhone 4 cases: As I stated eariler, the AT&T store where I picked up my pre-ordered iPhone 4 ran out of the limited cases they received eariler in the day, they had one purple and black two-tone hard case left when I was there, clearly the last of the barrel. As I had written a couple a months ago about the case accessories for the iPad, the 3rd best business to be in, after Apple selling iPhone/iPads and creating software apps for these products is to be in the case/accessory business for the iPad/iPhone. What a GREAT racket! Back when I got the iPad, I purchased both a Apple case and a Belkin case. These cases cost me, USD 39.00 and USD 49.99 while I am pretty sure cost Apple and Belkin on the order of less than fifty cents to manufacture, WHAT A GREAT PRODUCT TO SELL! And now with the iPhone 4, a completely different form factor which none of the existing cases fit, another GREAT business opportunity! The AT&T store where I picked up my iPhone 4's is about 50 meters from a Best Buy in Goleta. So a put my new iPhone's in my car and wandered over to the Best Buy to see if they had had any cases in stock. Sure enough they had a number of the third party case on their display rack. No one, including the Apple store I visited later had the office Apple 'rubber band' case in stock. Best Buy had two versions of a hard metal case in several colors and a Griffin Reveal Slim Fit case in white. Nothing in black or grey color to match the black color of the iPhone 4. I purchase for USD 25 one of the white Griffin slimfit cases. What a GREAT market to be in as I said before, this 'case' is NOTHING more than a three eights inch wide rubber band for twenty five dollars! Crap! costs Griffin fifty cents to make this and I bought it! I had been reading the blogs all day about the 'lefty' problem with shorting out the wifi and cellular antenna's, so I figured I should get one case to see the effect. Good news, Best Buy has a 30 day return policy and the Griffen SlimFit case packaging is very easy to open and get the case out with causing damage to the packaging! Easy to return for full cash refund! But, I doubt there will be a much better case at a significantly lower price in 30 days, so I will most likely suck it up and keep this 25 rubber band! More on my experience with the antenna and the value of case later.
- Android G1 bye bye: I purchase one of the Google G1 Android phones from t-Mobile 18 months ago when it first came out. Google has some amazingly great things in their Android platform, in comparing generation 1 of the Apple iPhone and Android G1, the G1 came out on top. Not by a knock down amount, and granted that the G1 was almost one and a half years after the generation one iPhone, but I would rate the G1 above the Apple products for a six to twelve month period from when I first bought the G1. However, after that due mostly to the rapid increase in hardware capability, the G1 quickly fell behind both other Android phone and the iPhone 3 GS.
- Mobile carrier: They all SUCK! I ate USD 100 on my t-Mobile contract today to move to AT&T. I think if I could remove the data and voice connect issues away from all of the smart phones I have owned, their would be less emotional and real difference between the product and also a clearer timeline of technology progress. As I start to play with the iPad and iPhone 4 more and more on the AT&T wireless service it clear that when these devices are connected via this mobile network as opposed to a WiFi network the amazing abilities of this hardware are muted to a large amount. I've use all four of the major USA carriers for data in the last four years and for a basic rating I will says that my experience using Sprint was the best over all; speed, availability and reliability. That said, this landscape is changing in the next 18 month very dramatically, so what was the best 18 to 24 months ago may well be fourth place in the next 18 to 24 months. It does seems as though there is a convergence on the next generation technologies to two from three. Basically 4G LTE and WiMax, with CDMA and GSM converging to LTE, this is a very non-pro view of these technologies however. But bottom line today, as GREAT as the iPhone 4 is, it runs on a 3G wireless network that does more often than not limit the abilities of the hardware and software in the phone.
- Mobile history: One of the most painful memories I had today as part of the exciting fun of getting the iPhone 4 occurred when I went to connect the iPhone to my Toyota Prius handsfree function. I've owned this 2004 Prius for about 5 years now. When I went to bluetooth associate the iPhone 4 with the car, the car told me I did not have any available phone slots. The picture below says it all, in the 5 years of owning the car, I have had four smart phones linked to it. If you assume I have spend USD 2,000 per smart phone's life on hardware, apps and service that amount to USD 8,000. That is about one fifth the cost of the car and its operation over the car's life, OUCH! Running down the phones; Windows CE smart phone on Cingular, 1st Generation iPhone on AT&T, Blackberry on Sprint and Android G1 on t-Mobile. By the way, this is the last picture I took on the Android G1. I also took the same picture on the new iPhone 4, and while the picture was six time larger in file size and of better quality, it did not do any better in showing the sad history of Dave's smart phones. Oh, and yes, I have owned two smart phone before I got the Prius, so my history of smart phones is even longer and more expensive!
- AT&T Microcell and AT&T coverage:I knew going into the move to the iPhone 4 and AT&T, that the coverage here in the area of Santa Barbara that I am currently spending a lot of my time is not 'the best'. I have gone through a lot of pain with the speed, reliability and coverage of mobile data networks as I have owned the last six smart phones. I've been on all four major carriers for data and here again is a plug for the pre-WiMax 3G Sprint coverage, I think it has been the best on all three scales. So, going to the iPhone 4, I have had two Kindles, one on the Sprint data network and one on the AT&T data network. As well I have one of the Apple iPad's on the AT&T data network. So, in combination with reviewing the coverage map for AT&T [see picture below] I was pretty sure I was going to have marginal coverage for both voice and data at my main location. So, along with the iPhone 4's, I purchased one of AT&T's femtocell devices. I will not go into the pricing option choices in this post, but will leave it to say that I just outright purchased the device for USD150. It comes with the standard 30 day return policy so I may consider returning and then 'rebuying' one at lower cash outlay cost but with a monthly cost. We shall see. Bottom line, the device does work, if you have crappy coverage it will fix that. Here are the basic stats for three AT&T devices: 5 BARS - iPhone 4 connected to AT&T Microcell 1 BAR - iPhone 4 connected to standard AT&T mobile tower in the area 3 BARS - iPad 3G connected to same standard AT&T mobile tower in the area
So what are lessons here for me? From the map and legend below, what AT&T calls 'moderate' service, I call NO service! Buyer beware! Different between iPad and iPhone 4G, basically having BIG honking case and antenna make RAW mobile coverage significantly different. My iPad 3G get much better 'BARS' coverage than either the iPhone 4G or the Kindle. HOWEVER, a larger number of bars does not necessarly translate to better data throughput. Loading the full iGoogle home page with no Flash on the Microcell connected iPhone took 35 seconds, Same page on the AT&T 2 to 4 bars iPad took 45 seconds, page on a AT&T 1 bar iPhone 4 took 15 seconds to load. So bottom line is that number of bars does not equate to speed of web page loading, there is very little correlation. But, getting the most bars is be best strategy for reducing dropped calls and getting better download speed. I have made several extended voice calls via the Microcell today and found no drops and overall superior voice quality. There were still a couple of times when heard some digital noise generated noise, but if you allow for this the voice experience on the Microcell appears to be very close to a five bar full mobile tower near by.
- Apple store: The guy at the AT&T store pretty much washed his hands of the display problem I having, it's not that he was unhelpful, just that you could really sense a lack of energy. The AT&T guy said to go to the Apple store in 3 days or so, to wait for the crowds to go down. But I left the AT&T store with some concern that I might get stuck a phone that Apple would say had 'user caused problems'. So after I picked up the femtocell at AT&T I decided to head down to the Apple store in downtown Santa Barbara and at minimum see if could a Apple Genus to see the problem and queue me up for a replacement. I was assuming they would be zero replacement parts for a day or two. But that proved wrong. First off, as I arrived at the Apple store about 5 pm, there were STILL two lines of 40 people waiting to either order or pickup their phones, WOW! A asked a Apple employee and she said it had been that way all day. I walked up to front door hoping to just go the Genius bar, but was stopped by a Apple person who said that the store was basically closed except for people picking up or ordering iPhone 4's. I explained [and showed] the problem I was having with the phone and wonderfully he said that I could go to the service desk. Which I did, after the Apple Genius showed the display problem to three or four other Geniuses and took it in back to do the 'has this Apple product been subject to moisture damage' test, always a scary event for everyone, he came back and said they would swap out the phone right there. Yea! it took about 20 minutes of paperwork and reconfiguration, but I walked out of the store with a replacement 32 GB iPhone 4. Crowds were still there, store was packed.
- Apple, AT&T and Best Buy customer service: I cannot leave this tale without saying that everyone at all four stores I visited today were very helpful, friendly and enjoyable to associate with. There is no doubt these folks had a long day and appear to get no more money on a chaotic day like today vs. a normal traffic day, but all showed very good customer service. Good job to all!
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