iPhone FAIL

This is my iPhone about a week after buying it. Talk about bummed.

iFAIL

It dropped from about 2 feet onto my driveway (slipped out of the van when I opened the door). It was dark out, so I didn’t realize that it was broken until I got inside.

When I shared this story with the guy at the AT&T store, he literally said, “I don’t believe it. I’ve never heard of the screen breaking on one of these; they’re practically indestructible.” What a moron. Maybe he doesn’t have access to google images, or maybe he wasn’t being truthful. To be fair to AT&T, the guy who sold me the phone was super helpful and professional.

As an Open Source user/hacker, it was hard for me to buy an iPhone over the G1, but I needed one for development. Izeni (my start-up) builds hosted communication applications that work with voice and all manner of mobile devices –iPhone being one of the most important players in the mobile market place. Anyway, my brother Jordan (co-founder of Izeni), will be getting a G1 for development pretty soon. We’ll see how rugged it is.

So the iPhone works with the cracked screen and I still use it. The bad news for Apple is that I’m asked about the broken screen 2 or 3 times a day. It’s like a walking/talking billboard being presented to your target market saying, “Yeah, it’s a great phone. BUT, it’s fragile, poorly backed and expensive to repair.”

To sum it up, FAIL.

December 13, 2008 • Posted in: FAIL, Izeni, iPhone

3 Responses to “iPhone FAIL”

  1. Chandra Amarandakuti - December 14, 2008

    You can get the screen fixed – this site ipodjuice.com does iphone screen repairs:

    http://www.ipodjuice.com/new-ipod-lcd-screen-replacements.htm#ipod-lcd-screens

    Hope that helps you.

  2. Rhett - December 15, 2008

    What a drag. I dropped my iPhone once from about waist height onto our tile floor. While dishes and glasses never survive such a fall, my iPhone was just fine. (I did have to put the SIM card back in) I guess I was lucky.

    I’m sure Apple would say it’s easy to replace; you just buy another one. :)

  3. sep - June 24, 2009

    1) Visit ebay.com.au
    2) Purchase new glass, or LCD and glass for less than $50.
    3) Install it yourself.

    iPhone is inexpensive and easy to repair.

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