iPhone 3G has a high failure rate and is unstable

[Charbax]

Posted by some guy on the Internet:

Paul said:
Aug. 15, 12:51 PM
Here is a list of iPhone 3G problems I have experienced.

iPhone Units
iPhone 3G was purchased on June 12, 2008
Crashed constantly with apps quitting all the time, 3G issues - 22 restores needed.
Came with 2.0 software and later I updated it to 2.0.1 when it came out.

First iPhone 3G replacement - August 1, 2008
Crashed constantly with apps quitting all the time, 3G issues, content disappeared from iPod app - 10 restores needed.
Received it from Tices Apple Store with 2.0.1 - new unit from new box.

Second iPhone 3G replacement - August 14, 2008
Apps quitting, 3G issues, content disappeared from iPod app - 1 restore needed.
Received it from GSP Apple Store with 2.0 and I updated it to 2.0.1 on first sync - was a replacement service part.


Crashing and Quits
Apps bought from App Store quit constantly. Many times when one app quits, then none of the others will launch anymore. Does not seem to matter which app or how many I have installed. Deleting and re-installing the apps does not help. Only a total restore and syncing the apps get them to run again. Until the next time they quit.

Sometimes an app will quit, killing the iPhone, leaving me with a white Apple logo. Once this happens nothing but a total restore will help. Holding down the Home key, restarting the iPhone or hard reset of the iPhone does not allow the iPhone to boot normally. Of course I am then left without even a phone.

Sometimes deleting or installing apps directly on the iPhone will crash it leaving you with white Apple logo that only a total restore will fix. I no longer install or update directly on the iPhone.

Running the iPhone without any apps from the App Store. iPhone still experienced problems with the Mail, Settings, Contacts, and Safari quitting. Lagging keyboard, slow scrolling, and slow Contacts (I have about 300) still present.

I have had to restore my first iPhone 3G about 22 times and I have restored this one about 9 times already. Most every time the iPhone has crashed I have lost the pictures I took and had to restore it as a new iPhone as iTunes tells me my backups are corrupted.

I have restored this using three different Intel Mac running Leopard 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7.1, did not matter. I even went as far as uninstalling iTunes, setting up a new account and reinstalling iTunes, re-downloaded the iPhone firmware and the apps I bought, did not matter, still crashed and apps quit within a day.

The longest the iPhone has ever worked without needing a restore is 3 days. Usually I get a day, maybe two. I have had it crash twice in the same day.

3G Reception Problems
iPhone constantly switches between 3G and EDGE even in a strong 3G area like North Jersey or NYC. This results in dropped, garbled calls and slow Internet. Sometimes I must restart the iPhone to let see the 3G network.

iPhone iPod Problem
After syncing the iPhone and adding about 300 purchased music and video tracks, a few audiobooks and some podcasts the iPhone says there is no music on it when I launch the iPod app. Yet if you connect it to iTunes you can see the content and under Settings -> General -> About on the iPhone it shows the that the iPhone is almost half full.

This happened on first and second replacement iPhones that was synced with a different Mac. Both times I has previously played them and after the apps started quitting, they were no longer seen by the iPhone 3G.

iTunes 7.7.1 Problems
It takes forever to backup the iPhone, only to find out that the backups are useless as iTunes reports they are corrupted when trying to restore the iPhone.

iTunes has NO idea when an app has an update available. It reports updates when none are needed, it sometimes reports there are no updates when there are. Sometimes it wants to install 6 or 7 copies of the same app when it reports an update.

iTunes has a serious bug in that it does not delete or overwrite old app files it just re-creates them! Looking in the iTunes -> Mobile Application folder I found many versions of the same app, loading up my Macs hard drive with incremented numbers. This is true on three different Macs I have tried to sync with. Itunes does not overwrite or delete old version of the apps. At one point I had over 1 GB of files when it probably should have been one third of that.

If the iPhone is syncing with iTunes and a phone call or SMS message comes in, the iPhone sometimes either stops syncing or crashes so bad that it needs a restore.

I have had to change my iTunes Store password over 20 times this month as iTunes or the iPhone will tell me my password is no good. I then reset it and a few days later it says it is no good again.

MobileMe Problems
Can not sync subscribed calendars. Mail outages.

Sometimes Mail app will report I have emails, but when I open the Mail app I have to manually hit the refresh button to see any of them.

[Bainsyboy]

sweet

[RonanC]

Posted by some guy on the Internet:

A damning testimony from an extremely reliable sounding source...



Ah no in all seriousness tho, Im not doubting what the guy says, and lets face it, the iwhatever devices are not exactly known for their reliability, but one article from one bloke his hardly enough to say they are unstable with a high failure rate. Sure if anyone was to quote half of these forums posters in another forum, its hardly going to make Archos sound too reliable either!!!

[Charbax]

If you want more sources for iPhone problems, just look it up at:

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch ... roblems%22

http://friendfeed.com/search?q=iphone+restore&public=1

http://www.arrowvoice.com.au/blog/inter ... t-comings/

http://www.asksuperz.com/2008/08/3g-app ... -problems/

http://www.mahalo.com/Iphone_problems

http://www.google.com/search?q=iphone+crash

http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/08/06/iphone-problems-2/

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/apple-faces-growing-list-problems/story.aspx

There's most probably a bunch more confirmation that you can easily find on the iPhone having lots of hardware and software problems, I've only been looking these links up for about 3 minutes.

Famous tech reporters that even are Apple fanboys like Leo Laporte and Veronica Belmont are reporting that they also have tons of problems with their iPhones.

[alankayser]

Let's not forget that people who are satisfied with their product aren't going to come on the internet to complain. There are probably people complaining about their Rolex watches and calling their Rolls Royce a piece of crap, too. There's no doubt that Apple has QC problems, but that has nothing to do with Archos. I would guess that on a % basis Apple, Archos, Sony, etc are all about the same when it comes to customer complaints.

[bioman]

Yes, the amounts of complaints are probably the same for most companies. The major difference is that Apple at least takes these complaints serious and tries to do something about it asap. At Archos they do not seem to have this urgency to rectify hard-and software mistakes.

[Charbax]

Yes, the amounts of complaints are probably the same for most companies.

Well that's what this thread is about. We can post all sources for complaints about the iPhone 3G in here.'

Just so people looking for an Apple iPhone 3G as an Archos Gen6 or Gen5 alternative, know what they are getting into. That's what the competitors section is about, discussing the competition.

The major difference is that Apple at least takes these complaints serious and tries to do something about it asap.

How do you know Apple will fix any of the current iPhone 3G issues? Have Apple officially said they will fix them? I don't think so.

Is Apple going to acknowledge their hardware bug and recall the millions of shipped iPhone 3Gs worldwide and give free replacements with a non-deffective 3G chipset inside? Apple hasn't stopped shipping deffective iPhone 3Gs, which basically means Apple is selling people a defective iPhone and people should just be satisfied with that or simply return it.

Will Apple fix their third party app problems as explained in Chriss Pirillo's video?

Apple has issued no official statements I think about all of their problems, other then the leaked email from Steve Jobs about him saying some stuff to his employees about how Apple is useless at providing web services considering how the announced and launched MobileMe service doesn't work.

[RonanC]

I could have sworn I posted in this thread last night, or maybe I just dreamt it...

[bioman]

LOL

(you didn't dream it)

[alankayser]

Let's not forget that people who are satisfied with their product aren't going to come on the internet to complain. There are probably people complaining about their Rolex watches and calling their Rolls Royce a piece of crap, too. There's no doubt that Apple has QC problems, but that has nothing to do with Archos. I would guess that on a % basis Apple, Archos, Sony, etc are all about the same when it comes to customer complaints.

FOUL!!! My statement above is now out of context since most of this thread has been trashed. Leaving it in makes it appear to be in agreement with the original post. It was in reply to posts that have now been trashed.

[Bainsyboy]

I Luv The Apple for sure

[Hubbard]

Let's not forget that people who are satisfied with their product aren't going to come on the internet to complain.

This is typically true for any other company, people do some research buy the product, get it and are happy with it and got what they expected, no need to go on the internet to tell everyone. But for some reason apple fans don't shut up about how good their products are. All over the internet, not just apple forums either. On a few other forums I'm a member off people will make an account go into a non-general/trashtalk section and start a thread about how happy their are with their new ipod/imac. Like it's cool if they like it, but there's a time and a place.

[RonanC]

I dont think its so much that they are shouting about how much they like their device, its more attention whores shouting "Look at me, look at me, Ive just bought the latest and greatest fashion accessory"!

[Hubbard]

Yeah that's more of what I was getting at, the people who are more likely to buy an ipod are the people who are trendy and think aesthetics > functionality, which are people who tend to love attention and won't shut up.

[Joe Cool]

The Tile of this thread should read "Charbax has a high failure rate and is unstable". I'm just kidding(but not really) please don't take this as a personal attack Char.