Is the iPhone romance fizzling out?

You can almost hear David Guetta's "Love is Gone" playing on iPods around the world. Have iPhone marriages hit a rough patch?

Apple announced today that the iPhone's App Store broke the 100,000-software mark, and app fever rages on. Heck, there's now an app for driving a car.

But maybe apps aren't enough anymore.

We were taken aback when readers flooded a post about AT&T improving cellphone service in Southern California with comments spitting venom at the telecom and threatening to jump ship to Verizon -- iPhone or not. Funnier still, complaints about AT&T kept rolling in even as T-Mobile was experiencing a full-on outage that affected an estimated 5% of customers.

Could it just be lust for Verizon's Droid, the telecom's first smartphone based on Google's Android operating system?

Either way, it's comforting to know that we here in the States are not alone. CNet UK called the iPhone "the worst phone in the world" on Tuesday, adding that it was a great mobile device but terrible for making calls. CNet lays much of the blame on O2, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G S; other carriers offer the older models.

On top of that, a survey released Tuesday makes iPhone owners look like shallow jerks.

Among the damning statistics, Apple phone users are more attracted to other gadget owners rather than those with a college education, according to the Retrevo survey of 247 iPhone owners nationwide. Oh, and they also end relationships via text messages and e-mails, according to the survey, which is caused by their significant others spending too much time on their phones a quarter of the time.

Of course, there haven't actually been any signs showing that iPhone users are tossing away their beloved devices -- not even of slowed growth. AT&T reportedly added 4.3 million 3G-enabled devices in the third quarter and 3.2 million of those were iPhones.

But the iPhone's public perception is no longer pristine. And Verizon, with its iDon't marketing campaign, wants to keep it that way.

-- Mark Milian

Twitter: @markmilian

Photo: Apple's Steve Jobs with an iPhone. Credit: Peer Grimm / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[PhoneShot]

Why make baseless comments?
Excerpt from your own article -"Of course, there haven't actually been any signs showing that iPhone users are tossing away their beloved devices -- not even of slowed growth. AT&T reportedly added 4.3 million 3G-enabled devices in the third quarter and 3.2 million of those were iPhones."

Everything else you mention is just fluff.

[Andrew]

Wow, a whole blog post that actually manages to say nothing yet contradict itself at the same time. That's talent.

[SteveG]

I think Apple really needs to get control of the App Store, and make it's own apps that will work and get support from Apple. There are too many redundant applications to choose from, some of which do or don't work and may not be supported and updated by hobbyist developers. It also seems that most iPhone users are not capable of leaving an informative or intelligent review other than "This sux!" or "OMG. It's awesome". I've lost some money gambling on apps that don't live up their advertised functionality.

Really, it's the tragedy of the commons that will do the iPhone in if Apple doesn't reign in the platform.

[KA]

How is being attracted to people with similar interests, rather than being attracted to someone of a certain education level, evidence of shallowness or jerkiness?

Blind brand loyalty is as silly as blindly rebelling against one brand or another, but the simple fact is that the iPhone is currently the best and most effective product in its category. The "romance" will justly end when that's no longer the case. People buy what they want, until they want something else, and then that's what they buy.

[Amanda]

I've honestly had very few problems with my iPhone since I bought it six months ago. If anything, the problems many people have been experiencing are AT&T related -- not hardware-related. Still loving my iPhone and still wondering how I ever did without it in the first place...

[Mike]

I honestly almost never comment on these things but this has to be one of the most pathetic attempts at "journalism" or EVEN opinion columns I have ever seen....

"Why make baseless comments?
Excerpt from your own article -"Of course, there haven't actually been any signs showing that iPhone users are tossing away their beloved devices -- not even of slowed growth. AT&T reportedly added 4.3 million 3G-enabled devices in the third quarter and 3.2 million of those were iPhones.""

COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF and the fact that this was in the FRONT PAGE of the LA TIMES ONLINE.....sad....

[Mark Milian]

The iPhone's honeymoon is over, and the hype machine is turning toward Android.

We're not saying everyone is ditching their iPhones and paying contract cancellation fees. This is just an observation that the iPhone isn't the media darling it once was.

[Apple Veteran]

I've been using Apple products exclusively for 15 years, but I will not buy an iPhone because I refuse to use AT&T.

[Ugh]

I'm absolutely in love with my iPhone. I could not have more unbridled hatred for AT&T. But to have the former I must, apparently, tolerate the latter.

AT&T's shenanigans and utter disdain for those of us who have to do business with them have tainted the device itself, and it's not fair. Yes, I could get a million other phones, but why?? This is the one I want! It's AT&T's fault I have spotty coverage and dropped calls, not Apple's!

[Casey]

Ummm... is this an Ad for the Verizon Droid ? Because this is not a news article.

[Vinnie]

"This is just an observation that the iPhone isn't the media darling it once was."

Well Mark, the paper you write for always seems to try and take away anything positive about Apple for years now. Your blog post is just another worthless attempt to diminish the success of Apple and the iPhone.

Don't worry about people jumping off the iPhone and ATT, worry about your paper cutting even more jobs and turning to talentless bloggers to fill the space where solid newsworthy articles used to be. Hate to say it but the people at Gizmodo have a lot more credibility than the LA Times when it comes to technology.

[Just switched to ATT iPhone after 8yrs with Verizon]

YES, ATT cell service is really bad in L.A. compared to Verizon, but iPhone is superior in on the go technology. I don't use apps yet, but the usability on text, email and surfing the Net is way superior to the Black Berrys. Verizon cell phones are aweful!

[Ata]

The above is what happens when you hire a "social media strategist" to do a journalist's job.

[Mark Milian]

Vinnie, take a look at the tag cloud to the right. Apple is one of our most-covered companies.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/apple/

The most recent of those posts talked about new product announcements and Apple's "most profitable quarter ever."

Speaking of Gizmodo (great blog, by the way), this post seems pretty apt right about now:

http://gizmodo.com/5395688/darth-droids-terror-is-insignificant-against-the-power-of-the-fanboy

[pacific ocean]

please throw this so called article in the recycling bin.......thanks

[JohnT]

Mark says, "This is just an observation that the iPhone isn't the media darling it once was."

And this from a media person. I hope the irony isn't lost on him.

And just the other day, my daughter asked me what the word "self-referential" meant...

[nick russell]

Obviously, 247 comments by an online shopping site counts as well-balanced, objective research and invites robust conclusions.

[Jay Arr]

Comparisons and doubt always surface when a hot new idea comes to the market. There is so much hype, thank you Verizon, that the iPhone would get another review. The fact is, it's been almost three years since the iPhone was announced and guess what...the first real contender finally caught up. Three years! Now maybe we have a real competitive choice the next time my contract comes up.

Frankly I don't have a problem with AT&T's service for my iPhone in my L.A. It just works...fine. Maybe if you live on the fringe of no where, you pay the price of living on the fringes for service.

[Rob McMillin]

Speaking as someone who recently moved from Verizon (Moto RAZR V3c) to an iPhone (and away from AT&T back in 2004 or so) --

1) The network quality is definitely inferior. I do have decidedly more dropped calls than with Verizon. Also, when my wife and I visited San Francisco a few months back, I had real problems getting anything but Edge (2G) network for data. That WiFi is provided for a reason.

2) That said, the phone is slick, slick, slick. Part of the thing that pushed me back to AT&T was Verizon's published comments that they were comfortable with long-term, exclusive agreements with phone makers. At that point, I had to ask myself: well, Verizon, does that mean you don't want me to have an iPhone on your network? Apparently not. User experience isn't just the sum of the network; the fact that they tried to push the overhyped Blackberry Storm (now being practically given away at $50 a copy) as an iPhone killer only goes to show just how clueless are the marketroids at Verizon (and perhaps the engineering team at Research In Motion).

3) Then there's Verizon's openly fascist policies about how software gets managed. Some years ago I got caught in a Phoenix downpour during spring training. The RAZR got soaked, was covered under insurance -- but I had to repurchase every single app. Why? Because Verizon takes the attitude that your phone is only leased to you, and even basic functionality like backup and restore should be an extra-cost item. Features available on the Sprint version of the same phone (calendaring, for instance, but there were many others equally irritating, such as transferring images some other way than e-mail) were stripped out in Verizon builds. It was just an inexcusable flip-off to their customers.

In short, I'm not surprised by the network complaints, especially from people who live in Hollywood and other relatively densely-populated areas. But Verizon has their catalog of sins as well, and comparing AT&T against Verizon without that intelligence is a dangerous exercise.

[AB]

"Are you on an iPhone?" Why do callers ask iPhone users that all the time? Not out of jealousy, that's for sure, but rather out of annoyance. Every time I talk with someone on an iPhone, whether they are in LA or NYC, it sounds like they are underwater. All the apps in the world don't make up for horrible sound quality. To all those iPhone users who love their phone, it's the folks at the other end who can't stand it. - AB in Santa Barbara on a crystal clear GooglePhone

[kem]

what's the problem?

the article was a puff piece but we all clicked on it, right? everybody here speaks a version of the truth. there are dumb apps and the service is expensive. but do we really want apple to control the app universe? or to open the service to other service providers who may or may not do it btter or cheaper? competition and the economies of scale inherent in a larger user base enable the best to improve and prevail.

i love my iphone - its a beautiful magical thing that makes my life better. i have had no prob with att - not for my land line, iphone or internet service.

thank you apple and to att for making this happen.

[kristian]

I don't need this article to tell me the the phone part of the iPhone is it's weakest feature. Be it because of the network or the device doesn't matter in this country because we are locked into one carrier. Unless of course you jailbreak but that leads to it's own problems. The iPhone is not perfect. It has many flaws, but so do must beautiful things.

[Andrew G]

The iPhone will not die, like it or not. Its an amazing and revolutionary device, but what will die, is AT&T.

[Alice]

Less than 1% of the iphone users surveyed said they didn't like the phone.

No other cell phone ever made... had such numbers.

[elvis]

Here in Canada, iPhone carrier competition began today, with Bell now in the mix against the formerly exclusive carrier, Rogers. But in the good ol' USA you are stuck with AT&T - what gives?