iPhone, Leopard among ‘15 biggest tech disappointments of 2007’
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Dec 17, 2007 at 1:27pm
The iPhone and Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) are two of the “15 biggest tech disappointments of 2007,” according to PC World. The others are the Amazon Unbox (a video delivery service), municipal lWiMax, social networks, Internet security, the Microsoft Zune, wireless carriers, Office 2007, Voice over IP, the broadband industry, Yahoo, Facebook Beacon, the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war, and Windows Vista.
Here’s what PC World had to say about the iPhone: “Yes, we know. Sliced bread only wishes it were as great as the iPhone. And aside from minor flaws like a tiny touch keyboard and lack of Flash support, the phone itself is pretty terrific. But AT&T’s broadband service? Definitely second-rate. And if you want to switch to a more reliable or faster carrier, you have to take your chances with the hackers.
“The $600 price tag—which soon dropped by $200 and then was followed by a $100 quasi-rebate—didn’t help. ‘I think the biggest debacle of 2007 is the iPhone pricing bait and switch,’ says Peggy Watt, a PC World contributing editor and professor of journalism at Western Washington University. ‘People do expect tech prices to drop, but not as quickly as the iPhone did. Apple’s response was pretty lame, too; a partial credit that couldn’t be used for a lot of popular items (such as iTunes).’
“Worse, those who did try to open their iPhones to other carriers or third-party applications found themselves owners of $600 iBricks when Apple tweaked the firmware to lock them out. Memo to Apple: It’s time to treat iPhones for what they really are-pocket computers with phone functions built in-and open them up the world. Just a thought.”
And here’s what PC World has to say about Leopard: “Maybe we just got spoiled by the iPod and iPhone, but the glow came off Steve Job’s halo after this feline fleabag debuted. Within days of its release last October, Mac users reported dozens of problems with the new OS, some more serious than others. Among the many: Wireless connections that slowly petered away, administrative logins that mysteriously disappeared, and a disturbing tendency to nuke data when moving it between two drives if the connection is interrupted.
“Worse, a security bug that was fixed in OS 10.4 in March 2006 resurfaced in Leopard, according to Symantec. The Apple Mail vulnerability allows malicious attachments to execute code. German security researchers discovered that Leopard came with its firewall turned off, leaving users vulnerable to attack. Adding insult to injury, some upgraders even reported a Windows-like Blue Screen of Death when upgrading from previous Mac OSs. In mid-November, Apple released an update to Leopard that fixed some of the bugs, including the firewall glitch. Repairing Apple’s reputation, however, may take slightly longer.”
hardman Says:
Bias, anyone?
After a headline associating “only” Apple products with “biggest...disappointments, when Apple ranked only 5th ...behind Microsoft products!
After a long list of “dissappointment products”, Vista is listed last, almost like an afterthought, even though it was the NO. 1 “most dissappointing product”?
Then a detailed explanation of Apple products “faults” while none about the Zune, or those of the NO. 1 most disappointing ...VISTA?
So much for honesty, journalism or credibility. Long live MS spin!
Posted on December 17, 2007
D Says:
Hysterical,
Do I smell a troll? Time magazine just ranked the iPhone the number one gadget of 2007. Personally I want nothing to do with an iPhone until they’re unlocked, but I have to completely laugh at this PeeC World review. Leopard is so fantastically smooth for me and allows me to still run Windoze XPee with ease (if I ever wanted to do that). To be honest, though, I could care less about reviews. OSX has changed my computer life to be fun, efficient and trouble-free, so to the nay-sayers I say “keep on suffering, makes no difference to me”.
Posted on December 18, 2007
Russ Says:
Anyone surprised? I’m not. The main complaint of the iPhone has been since day one AT&T;’s unreliable, slow network. Even Kevin from Attack of the Show did a commercial parody for the iPhone, where he said he couldn’t make calls in so many places in the USA with AT&T;, so he keeps a Sprint phone has a backup. If the iPhone came over to Sprint or Verizon, it would be a bigger hit. Better, faster networks, more features. But people are stupid. They wasted huge money switching and buying the iPhone. Now they have poor service and an EDGE iPhone that is going to be replaced with the 3G in a few months.
Posted on December 18, 2007
breanna lopez Says:
no not surprised at all… i played with the iphone at a cingular store and really did not see much in it. no keyboard! how lame is that. i do notice those who buy the phone show it off contently!!! that shows me they don’t understand the phone they just want to be hip. which is also lame. i don’t think the iphone would be any better with verzion but maybe sprint. verizon bounces customers for using a lot of data. which is what pdas are made for. i have already heard some complaints of cingular bouncing customers for streaming radio to often. and for roaming more then a set number of minutes a month. which is lame because you don’t really know when you are roaming with them.
Posted on December 18, 2007
THE HATER Says:
The phone is stupid! the service is stupid. what more needs to be said. and I Am So Sick of gettings e-mails from iphone users telling me the message is coming from an iphone. You are dumb! You bought an overpriced phone from a bad wireless company! Don’t be proud of that!
Posted on December 18, 2007
jamie from Miami Says:
the iphone is good in some ways so they shouldnt be bashed on all areas. yes the service they run on is the worst but the phone is setting new standards. no more highpriced pda’s with lowpowered features. the iphone will make all other pda makers to bring out the best inorder to compete. already this is going on. so it is all right to bash the network but not fully on the phone itself. give it some credit.
Posted on December 18, 2007
BDT Says:
what was apple thinking ? the new g3 version is due out soon. i think apple wanted to bleed customers dry. bleed them of 600 dollars knowing full well they were going to offer a faster version. they bled customers who bought hacked phones so they could make even more money by breaking them with an update. customers are not stupid you know. who wants to get an iphone with att when they can use it on a cheaper service? att charges alot per month! i mean alot for iphone service. apple lost my respect for life!
Posted on December 18, 2007
lex .t. Says:
vista should take up all of the slots. but hardmen i don’t agree with the zune being bad. the zune 2 is very nice. much better then the ipod, where you can’t use drm music from anyone else on it. people buy the ipod cause they are idiots. mindless morons. vista is bad but not the zune. dont get me started on the i-phone! i will never buy another apple product again! the fact the i-phone is on at&t;just makes the idea sick! i will never in my life go back to using there service! im good and happy with sprint.
Posted on December 18, 2007
Josh Says:
I dont personally like the iphone but it did do very well, and i will prob get grilled for sayin dis by fanboys, but on paper vista is bad, it doesnt offer much over XP, and is deff the Windows ME of this generation, however it is fantastic to use, and sp1 is a vast improvement its only wen ugo back to use xp after using vista a while, u realise how much easier it is to use.
BTW , I hope this list is not reffering to the 2nd generation zune
Posted on December 18, 2007
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
P. Roberts Says:
Comming from PC World, this has about as much impact as a wisdom tooth being pulled.....they have NEVER given Apple their due, and are consistantly putting the OS down in favor of their platform of choice! Personally, I don’t take anything that PC World says as truth for that very reason----they are FAR from the truth of the matter, and would be very hard to believe as a source of information on the Mac platform.
Posted on December 17, 2007