Is the iPhone reliable enough to depend on?

To be honest, if you feel you need to depend on a cell phone that much, than an iphone may not be for you. I have a verizon razr that has taken numerous falls and tumbles and still works fine. Any one of these tumbles would have killed my iphone. I personally feel that with the iphone I need to be MUCH more careful than with any other phone I have.

Signal wise, for the most part I havent had too many problems, but there has been at least one time where I was witout any signal at all, in an area where I normally get a strong signal. At the time I had my verizon razr with me, and that phone had a very strong signal.

The iPhone is not dependable at all. Sometimes the unit will just lockup and the only way to get the phone working again is to sync with iTunes. That's a real problem is you don't have a PC nearby. It's a very buggy product, real shame that Apple can't get the device to be stable.

Not as a syncable calender. I use a PC and it won't sync anymore to Outlook 2003 or 2007. No one in tech support can fix the issue. I have read others in this forum with same issues.

b) May lock up or otherwise misbehave because of corruption of the software, the general complexity of the device, etc. -- especially anything that requires a computer to fix, runs down the battery, or makes it impossible to use the touch screen to place calls.

I purchased my iPhone on 6/29 and I use it extensively - some days more so than others. I've been out of town with my iPhone a number of times without my PB and I've experienced no such lock up that prevents use especially the ability to use the touch screen to place calls, etc. - not once. I use my personal cell phone in place of a landline at home so now my iPhone is used for that also. I get an occasional Safari crash from time to time but that is it.

You well know that asking these questions in a forum where the predominant membership is composed of users who have experienced problems with the device, that you are going to get predominantly negative comments which may well be far from an accurate reflection of the user experience of the iPhone as a whole. If you're looking for a self-fulfilling prophecy, this is a good way to go about it!

I've had a significant number of cellphones over the years and they have all been pretty much junk. The last one I had was a Moto RAZR V3m, and I can safely say that if it were the only cellphone on the market, I wouldn't have ever bothered to have one. It routinely missed calls, dropped calls, produced poor, echoing audio, suffered sudden battery failures and was tediously fiddly and obstructive to use. By comparison the iPhone has been a breath of fresh air, not least because it's proven to be entirely trustworthy - and that despite having swapped from US Cellular, which had excellent coverage, to AT&T which does not.

All in all though, however clever, smart or versatile a cellphone, the one thing it must do right is make and take phone calls, and if you are in any doubt about the iPhone's capabilities in this regard, it is simply not a wise choice to make to get one. Certainly it may prove itself excellent in service, but as an unknown quantity in the context of your personal needs and patterns of use, it's a risk you make clear you can't actually take. Better to forgo the niceties of design and instead opt for something you already know to be functional in your own personal context.

For the sake of completeness:

a) May not be among the best in weak signal areas, possibly because of the internal antenna, the inclusion of so much other circuitry, or whatever.

In comparison to my old AT&T Blackberry, the iPhone signal is almost identical. It occasionally dips lower in the interior of buildings than the Blackberry, and varies a little more, but typically I've not found the AT&T signal to be all that good amongst buildings anyway. There is no doubt that where a less than optimal signal is concerned, a device with external antenna is generally going to outperform one with an internal one - the human body is a rather effective 'signal damper' at these frequencies.

b) May lock up or otherwise misbehave because of corruption of the software, the general complexity of the device, etc. -- especially anything that requires a computer to fix, runs down the battery, or makes it impossible to use the touch screen to place calls.

While there are always examples of units which do suffer such problems, simply because manufacturing is never 100%, my experience of the iPhone has been that it is very stable as a platform. It has behaved predictably in the almost 3 months I have had one, and not caused any concerns in terms of whether or not it was functioning correctly. I would expect that despite the complexity, the majority of users as a whole would likely say the same thing. When you consider the furore here at the price cut or the 1.1.1 update, and set that against the general complaints and failure reports here, you'll get the distinct impression that while there are unhappy owners, there aren't an avalanche of them complaining about the same things.

c) Has an non-user-relaceable battery so I can't use a spare as a backup or replacement should the provided one run down or lose recharge capacity from (for example) accidentally leaving the phone in a freezing or overheated car.

The internal battery has always been used as a stick to beat Apple, not just with the iPhone but iPods previously. Oddly though, that hasn't prevented these devices selling well and being very widely used. It certainly limits the option of carrying a spare, though it is also of note that carrying a spare in terms of this battery technology is not always such a good idea, given the self-discharge rates. Basically while the capability to swap-out batteries would give some users a benefit, it also then creates a more complex pattern of use. The iPhone (rightly or wrongly) is designed to simplify, not complicate.

In terms of trustworthiness - I don't know of any carrier or device in the US that I would trust as much more than a toy. The cellular market here is too heavily dominated by stagnant players with vested interests in not doing anything new. By comparison to Europe, where cellphone services have been far more robust and carriers far more reactive, service quality and standards are a joke and the market is really quite immature. Emphasis is placed on gimmicks and flourishing feature sets, not on quality products that do what they actually need to do. As a result, I'd say if your existing 4-year old device does what you have needed it to do, the lack of the bells and whistles on it is really part of the reason, and is largely the reason you should keep that and continue to use it.

For me, I have thoroughly disliked the cellphones I have had in recent years. Cheap, nasty little things, designed to appeal by gimmickry alone. That's actually one of the reasons I like the iPhone, because as much as it is a toy, it doesn't pack all those gimmicks or pretend to substitute for them. It is, instead, a simple, fairly unexciting, communications tool, with an interface that makes it usable.As such, in my pattern of usage and needs, it fits much better than anything else so far, and gives me no reason to trust it less than anything I've had previously. Even then, however, I think there is a long road ahead in the development of it before those who need to take it seriously will be able to really do so.

My phone got locked out after I downloaded the new software version from i-tunes. Now I am being told that I have somehow voided my warranty and so have a $400 paperweight. See my post under IMEI number.

For myself the iPhone has been very dependable. I travel to the Caribbean very often and I use email,phone and ipod functions there. Now while I don't think it will survive a tumble down a flight of metal stairs, the phone is (at least mine is) sturdy. Remember it has a glass screen that will break. That said, I have dropped mine a couple of times (no more than a couple of feet to the ground) but I had a protector film for the glass and the protector case. So no damage to the phone at all.

All in all, if you tend to be a bit rough on your phones,,, well this one might not be for you. You might want to consider phones that have rubberized coatings and are basically mil spec. When I think of who the target audience for the iphone is (Apple may disagree with me on this one), I don't think it is some pig farmer or rancher out in the middle of no where. These are devices that clearly are made of the "plugged in" consumer. I mean, I can't believe that my grandfather who is a farmer would want to be checking the latest youtube videos from the cab of his tractor.
At-any-rate, think about it..... don't get caught up in the hype... evaluate your own needs and pick the device that best suits your needs.

I've had a significant number of cellphones over the years and they have all been pretty much junk. The last one I had was a Moto RAZR V3m, and I can safely say that if it were the only cellphone on the market, I wouldn't have ever bothered to have one. It routinely missed calls, dropped calls, produced poor, echoing audio, suffered sudden battery failures and was tediously fiddly and obstructive to use. By comparison the iPhone has been a breath of fresh air, not least because it's proven to be entirely trustworthy - and that despite having swapped from US Cellular, which had excellent coverage, to AT&T which does not.

I couldn't agree more. The business I'm involved in remains under contract with Verizon and my business cell phone is a Razr 3M so I have a daily side by side comparison. I dread having to navigate through different menus with this phone - even locating a contact to dial. Even with an included "search" feature, I can generally make the same call faster with my iPhone. I have mostly the same contacts available with both phones - primarily due to a number of locations that I frequent where I have very poor reception with Verizon but not with AT&T. I'm sure there are some locations where the reverse is true but I haven't experienced it yet. Of course Texas is a strong coverage area for AT&T so that helps. There is zero comparison with the user interface between these two devices and ease of use. The call quality with my iPhone is also much better in comparison and I finally have a phone and device that syncs direct with my Address Book contacts and iCal calendar events.

Agree with everything you wrote. As for reliability, I think we have to wait another year or so to say how reliable the iphone is. Having said that, for a first generation product it seem incredibly robust with very few, if any, major problems.

If I absolutely required a mobile phone to be 100% reliable, I'd carry two phones. I've never had a mobile phone (or carrier) that worked properly all the time.

My iPhone that I got on iDay has died while waiting for a return phone call, had the power supply stop charging the iPhone and, yesterday, my husband reported he could no longer make or receive calls with his iPhone. Because I read this forum, I knew that the two-button reset would fix my "dead" phone, I took my power supply to the Apple store for a quick swap out, and I was able to suggest to my husband that he reattach his earbuds to his iPhone (a couple of times, if it had been necessary) to get his iPhone working again. Yes, it would be nice not to have to deal with these things, but, yes, they were all easily fixed. (My only option with other mobile phones was to shut it down, turn it back on and hope it would work better the next time!)

Just by your questions it's obvious you already know what can go wrong with the iPhone and so you probably also already know how to resolve them all.

The iPhone is by far the best mobile phone I've used. I highly recommend it.

MaryThomas wrote:
If I absolutely required a mobile phone to be 100% reliable, I'd carry two phones. I've never had a mobile phone (or carrier) that worked properly all the time.

My iPhone that I got on iDay has died while waiting for a return phone call, had the power supply stop charging the iPhone and, yesterday, my husband reported he could no longer make or receive calls with his iPhone. Because I read this forum, I knew that the two-button reset would fix my "dead" phone, I took my power supply to the Apple store for a quick swap out, and I was able to suggest to my husband that he reattach his earbuds to his iPhone (a couple of times, if it had been necessary) to get his iPhone working again. Yes, it would be nice not to have to deal with these things, but, yes, they were all easily fixed. (My only option with other mobile phones was to shut it down, turn it back on and hope it would work better the next time!)

Just by your questions it's obvious you already know what can go wrong with the iPhone and so you probably also already know how to resolve them all.

The iPhone is by far the best mobile phone I've used. I highly recommend it.

I could not agree more with the exception of Mary Thomas' last statement. Except I woul say that the iPhone has the potential of being the best mobile phone one may ever own. It is not there yet. It has some problems.

But back to your question - Being a "belt and suspenders" guy there is not such thing as a electronic device being immune from failure. There is always a single point of failure possibility and it all gets down to risk mitigation.

If you want to make sure that you always have access to a cell phone then you should carry two cell phones, not one. That almost reduces your potential risk to near zero. The second phone would not have to be an iPhone just some standby in case... Of course you would always have to remember to charge it so that if you ever need to resort to the standby it would work. You may or may not want to also keep it up to date with a contact list but again that is not necessary.

I think that your emphasis on the physical failure of the iPhone may be somewhat unnecessary with the exception of the issues you brought up concerning the battery but that is somewhat remote. Of course you would have the same problem with carrying a second phone, perhaps even more so due to its secondary role.

My concern at this time would be failure due to the fluid nature of the iPhone's software functionality, i.e., the current unstable nature of the software. That should decrease as time goes on with future updates that I am sure will be forthcoming.

Good luck with your decision process.

Which I rather think demonstrates the fact that you have thoroughly answered your own question! Your viewpoint, based as it is on your own experiences, needs and perceptions, is the only one that can really count for anything for you - and it's not as if an alternative perception is going to have much meaning when it's based on other people's viewpoints.

For me, for example, the battery issue is almost completely lacking in relevancy. The last thing I need is another battery and another charger or the need to keep track of what was last charged when. In my case, leaving the device on 24/7 and dropping it in the dock when I arrive at work each morning works to perfection and is simplicity itself. But clearly, since my pattern of use doesn't match yours, it's not of any relevance to you whether it works for me or not!

The issue really seems to me to be why on earth you'd be considering the iPhone at all. In every way, it appears deficient in terms of the view you have of it as a usable device, and the very fact you're asking here in full knowledge of the nature of responses you are inevitably going to get suggests that you know it. Everything that adds complexity to a device is not only going to negatively impact on power usage, but also add potential reliability failure points. Thus the more critical the need, the simpler the device must of necessity be in order to get the most reliable use out of it. The iPhone is hardly a simple device.

If you had need for more complex tools than merely the cellphone, then it may even then be worth considering, but it seems a bad purchase choice to me in the circumstance you describe.