People who don’t live in San Francisco are most likely tired of hearing it by now. But I just want to reconfirm and reiterate that if you’ve never been to San Francisco with your iPhone, you have no way of knowing just how terrible we have it here. Especially not if you live in Philadelphia.
For three days, I went everywhere from Center City to many of the surrounding suburbs, walking, standing still, and driving at various speeds, and NOT ONCE did I ever have anything but full voice and 3G service. Not once did I get a flaky GPS signal that led me to wrong turns on my way to my sister’s house.
The impact this reliability has on the experience of owning an iPhone is profound.
How much more pleasant it was, not having to worry whether or not my phone was going to sit there dumbly, spinning its data icon, pretending that it would eventually connect and get me that weather report or that Yelp info on the restaurant I wanted to try. How amazing it was whenever my phone rang, having a reasonable expectation that when I picked up the call, I’d actually hear the voice on the other end, and he or she would hear me.
Wait a minute. Did I really just say that my phone actually rang, not just put my caller straight through to voicemail? A voicemail that I wouldn’t receive on my phone for up to three days?
I’m not talking about the difference between good, reliable service and bad service here. I’m talking about the difference between excellent service and non-service. Night and Day. Heaven and Hell. Up and Down.Yes, Philadelphia. It is true that you get much, much better service than we do in San Francisco. You actually get what you pay for every month, what AT&T promised you on their end of the contract. So why do we put up with it here in the City by the Bay? Because we’re idiots. And because the iPhone really is that great a device.
But you lost a sale when I went for the WiFi only iPad, AT&T. And you’re going to lose a lot more customers when Apple eventually offers an iPhone on another network. You’d better hope that San Franciscans aren’t traveling too much, where they might get a taste, like I did, of what they should be getting.
