Finally, someone has the…uh…apples to speak the truth to power when it comes to that customer experience golden boy named Apple. Kudos to Philip Elmer-DeWitt for saying what us Apple lovers and iPhone users have been ashamed to admit: The iPhone is a really bad phone but a great little gadget. In his recent post, DeWitt describes what we iPhone users have all experienced – buggy performance, dropped calls, really crappy battery life, and still no speed dial. My personal experience? When I upgraded to the 3G, I got a little faster Internet speed at the expense of a listless battery that makes the phone virtually tethered all the time, rendering it impractical for business use. When I sought out sage advice from a bearded, modern hipster at the Mac Genius bar, I got an uppity attitude: “You have to turn 3G off if you want to get better battery life. You just can’t have both Internet speed and battery life.” Why not? Combine this with the fact that I am being double billed for my .me account and can’t find a body to talk to. It makes me wonder if Apple has grown too big for its own britches (or designer jeans). Now don’t get me wrong. I have been an Apple fan since the early ’80s when I worked for one of the first Apple resellers. And I wouldn’t give up my MacBook, even for a free Windows laptop with more power. But I saw Apple’s success go to it’s head in the ’90s, when executives thought they could shove Macs into corporations around entrenched IT interests. Now I fear the company, long praised as the leader in the customer experience game, has lost its focus. If the iPhone is to maintain it’s leadership position, Apple needs to focus more on basic phone reliability and customer service. Cool apps are great, but they don’t make up for customer experience basics. Apple’s game plan should have less gadget plays and more blocking and tackling, to use a bad football analogy.
