The Apple iPhone was released last Friday and has already reportedly sold over 500,000 copies. We also heard last week that the device will even play YouTube videos! Wowee!
But there are already two major problems:
- iPhone users being forced to use itunes
- At&T possibly stopping YouTube videos due to copyright policy
Forced iTunes Accounts
To digress slightly, Steve Jobs is using the cunning form of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control on the iPhone.
Users won’t be able to use unless they first sign up with iTunes, whether or not they have any use for it.
AT&T Issues with YouTube?
It’s also compelling iPhoners to open AT&T accounts, whether they like it or not, and therein lies the problem.
The AT&T restriction policy clashes, “head-on with a proclamation by AT&T that the carrier would keep pirated films, music and other content off its network,” says Broadcast Engineering.
And, “Since AT&T is the exclusive network for iPhone service, the confusing messages left many scratching their heads,” says the story, continuing:
“Not only that, AT&T’s customer user agreement currently bans any streaming video over its network. ‘Unlimited plans cannot be used for uploading, downloading or streaming video content (e.g. movies, TV), music or games,’ AT&T’s agreement states.”
AT&T has yet to say whether it’ll changing the policy for the iPhone to accommodate Steve Jobs’ current marketing claims.
AT&T’s marriage with Apple was, “extremely controversial because major network providers traditionally route all content neutrally, without discriminating in favor or against a particular content or application,” says Broadcast Engineering.
[Content in whole or part adapted from p2pnet and is licensed under Creative Commons]
I switched from a treo 700 to an Iphone because i found the treo was nearly impossible to properly synch information with my Macs.
The Iphone is seemless in information synch, but frankly has very limited other options. I cannot teather my iphone as a modem, which has been a crucial lifesaver in the boonies where i sometime work, I cannot get a single utube video to play, and can’t find videos I know exist that do not have copyright issues. everything else is great and I have no problem.
Oh, one more thing, forget about sending text with a photo. So if you see a sweet sight, you cannot just zap it to your buddies phone. Alas, the cost of being more productive at work.
I think anyone who stood in line to buy a “ginnie pig iPhone” now was foolish (it should still be considered BETA). I’m just gonna sit back and read all the negative blogs about everything that has gone wrong with it and learn from everyone elses mistakes. Eventually Apple should create a 2nd gen fixing most of the bugs found . After the product has saturated the market enough, within 6 months to a year it will probably be 1/4 to 1/3 off the origional price. Not to mention at&t servers almost crashed on the evening of Jun 29th due to nationwide overload.
So lets see.. pay 5/600 for a fluke 1st gen, or wait it out a few months and get a near flawless 2gen for less, when both the phone itself and network compatibility has improved. Hopefully it may be open to other more reliable cell carriers down the road too.
It’s just like the iPods; in the begining you paid more for less GB of space and weaker resolution. Now you pay less, for a substantially better quality product.
TechGeek — I’m also always one for waiting a good few months to let the hype (and the prices) die down.
Any chance they will ever team up with someone besides AT&T?
People are very facinated about new things but everything depend now on iphone service lets see what are their limitations in video conferecing.